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the general system, as a link to the everlasting chain of successive causes. I therefore told her, that destiny had ordained us to part, and that nothing should have torn me froin her but the talons of necessity.

changed, but to preserve her whom I was leaving of fate; or consider cuckoldom as necessary to from the shock of abruptness, or the ignominy of contempt; that I always endeavoured to give the ladies an opportunity of seeming to discard me; and that I never forsook a mistress for a larger fortune, or brighter beauty, but because I discovered some irregularity in her conduct, or some depravity in her mind; not because I was charmed by another, but because I was offended by herself.

I then solicited the regard of the calm, the prudent, the economical Sophronia, a lady who considered wit as dangerous, and learning as superfluous, and thought that the woman who I was very early tired of that succession of kept her house clean, and her accounts exact, amusements by which the thoughts of most took receipts for every payment, and could find young men are dissipated, and had not long glit- them at a sudden call, inquired nicely after the tered in the splendour of an ample patrimony condition of the tenants, read the price of stocks before I wished for the calm of domestic happi- once a-week, and purchased every thing at the ness. Youth is naturallydelighted with spright- best market, could want no accomplishments liness and ardour, and therefore I breathed out necessary to the happiness of a wise man. She the sighs of my first affection at the feet of the discoursed with great solemnity on the care and gay, the sparkling, the vivacious Ferocula. I fan- vigilance which the superintendence of a family cied to myself a perpetual source of happiness in demands, observed how many were ruined by wit never exhausted, and spirit never depressed; confidence in servants, and told me that she looked with veneration on her readiness of ex- never expected honesty but from a strong chest, pedients, contempt of difficulty, assurance of and that the best storekeeper was the mistress's address, and promptitude of reply; considered eye. Many such oracles of generosity she uther as exempt by some prerogative of nature tered, and made every day new improvements from the weakness and timidity of female minds; in her schemes for the regulation of her servants, and congratulated myself upon a companion and the distribution of her time. I was con superior to all common troubles and embarrass- vinced, that, whatever I might suffer from Soments. I was, indeed, somewhat disturbed by phronia, I should escape poverty; and we there the unshaken perseverance with which she en- fore proceeded to adjust the settlements accordforced her demands of an unreasonable settle-ing to her own rule, fair and sofily. But one ment; yet I should have consented to pass my life n union with her, had not my curiosity led me to a crowd gathered in the street, where I found Ferocula, in the presence of hundreds, disputing for sixpence with a chairman. I saw her in so little need of assistance, that it was no breach of the laws of chivalry to forbear interposition, and I spared myself the shame of owning her acquaintance. I forgot some point of cerc mony at our next interview, and soon provoked her to forbid me her presence

My next attempt was upon a lady of great eminence for learning and philosophy. I had Lequently observed the barrenness and uniformity of connubial conversation, and therefore thought highly of my own prudence and discern ment, when I selected from a multitude of wealthy beauties, the deep-read Misothea, who declared herself the inexorable enemy of ignorant pertness and puerile levity; and scarcely condescended to make tea, but for the linguist, the geometrician, the astronomer, or the poet. The queen of the Amazons was only to be gained by the hero who could conquer her in single combat; and Misothea's heart was only to bless the scholar who could overpower her by disputation. Amidst the fondest transports of courtship she could call for a definition of terms, and treated every argument with contempt that could not be reduced to regular syllogism. You may easily imagine, that I wished this courtship at an end; but when I desired her to shorten my torments, and fix the day of my felicity, we were led into a long conversation, in which Misothea endeavoured to demonstrate the fully of attributing choice and self-direction to any human being. It was not difficult to discover the danger of committing myself for ever to the arms of one who night at any time mistake the dictates of passion, or the calls of appetite, for the decree

morning her maid came to me in tears to entreat my interest for a reconciliation to her mistress, who had turned her out at night for breaking six teeth in a tortoise-shell comb; she had attended her lady from a distant province, and having not lived long enough to save much money, was destitute among strangers, and though of a good family, in danger of perishing in the streets, or of being compelled by hunger to prostitution. I made no scruple of promising to restore her; but upon my first application to ophronia, was answered with an air which called for approbation, that if she neglected her own affairs, I might suspect her of neglecting mine; that the comb stood her in three half crowns; that no servant should wrong her twice; and that indeed she took the first opportunity of parting with Phillida, because, though she was honest, her constitution was bad, and she thought her very likely to fall sick. Of our conference I need not tell you the effect; it surely may be forgiven me, if on this occasion, 1 forgot the decency of common forms.

From two more ladies I was disengaged by finding that they entertained my rivals at the same time, and determined their choice by the liberality of our sentiments. Another I thought myself justified in forsaking, because she gave my attorney a bribe to favour her in the bargain; another because I could never soften her to tenderness, till she heard that most of my family had died young; and another, because, to increase her fortune by expectations, she represented her sister as languishing and consumptive.

I shall in another letter give the remaining part of my history of courtship. I presume that I should hitherto have injured the majesty of female virtue, had I not hoped to transfer my affection to higher merit. I am, &c.

HYMEN EUS.

SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1751.

-Audi,

unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est.

When man's life is in debate,

The judge can ne'er too long deliberate.

JUV.

DRYDEN.

severest punishment that man has the power of exercising upon man.

The lawgiver is undoubtedly allowed to esuimate the malignity of an offence, not merely by the loss or pain which single acts may produce, but by the general alarm and anxiety arising from the fear of mischief, and insecurity of possession he therefore exercises the right which societies POWER and superiority are so flattering and de- are supposed to have over the lives of those that lightful, that, fraught with temptation and expos- compose them, not simply to punish a transgres ed to danger as they are, scarcely any virtue is sion, but to maintain order, and preserve quiet; so cautious, or any prudence so timorous, as to he enforces those laws with severity that are most decline them. Even those that have most rever-in danger of violation, as the commander of a ence for the laws of right, are pleased with show-garrison doubles the guard on that side which is ing that not fear, but choice, regulates their be-threatened by the enemy. haviour; and would be thought to comply, rather than obey. We love to overlook the 'boundaries which we do not wish to pass; and, as the Roman satirist remarks, he that has no design to take the life of another, is yet glad to have it in his hands.

This method has been long tried, but tried with so little success, that rapine and violence are hourly increasing, yet few seem willing to despair of its efficacy, and of those who employ their speculations upon the present corruption of the people, some propose the introduction of more From the same principle, tending yet more to horrid, lingering, and terrific punishments; scine degeneracy and corruption, proceeds the desire are inclined to accelerate the executions; some to of investing lawful authority with terror, and discourage pardon; and all seem to think that governing by force rather than persuasion. Pride lenity has given confidence to wickedness, and is unwilling to believe the necessity of assigning that we can only be rescued from the talons of robany other reason than her own will; and would bery by inflexible rigour, and sanguinary justice. rather maintain the most equitable claims by vio- Yet since the right of setting an uncertain and lence and penalties, than descend from the dig-arbitrary value upon life has been disputed, and nity of command to dispute and expostulation. since experience of past times gives us little reaIt may, I think, be suspected, that this politi-son to hope that any reformation will be effected cal arrogance has sometimes found its way into by a periodical havoc of our fellow-beings, per legislative assemblies, and mingled with delibe-haps it will not be useless to consider what con rations upon property and life. A slight perusal sequences might arise from relaxations of the of the laws by which the measures of vindictive law, and a more rational and equitable adaptaand coercive justice are established, will discover tion of penalties to offences. so many disproportions between crimes and punishments, such capricious distinctions of guilt, and such confusion of remissness and severity, as can scarcely be believed to have been produced by public wisdom, sincerely and calmly studious of public happiness.

Death is, as one of the ancients observes, rò roV pоbeρur pоbεрúratov, of dreadful things the most dreadful; an evil beyond which nothing can be threatened by sublunary power, or feared from human enmity or vengeance. This terror should, therefore, be reserved as the last resort of authority, as the strongest and most operative of prohibitory sanctions, and placed before the treasure of life, to guard from invasion what cannot be restored. To equal robbery with mu der is to reduce murder to robbery, to confound in common minds the gradations of iniquity, and incite the commission of a greater crime to prevent the detection of a less. If only murder were punished with death, very few robbers would stain their

The learned, the judicious, the pious Boerhaave relates, that he never saw a criminal dragged to execution without asking himself, "Who knows whether this man is not less culpable than me?" On the days when the prisons of this city are emptied into the grave, let every spectator of the dreadful procession put the same question to his own heart. Few among those who crowd in thousands to the legal massacre, and look with carelessness, perhaps with triumph, on the ut-hands with blood; but when by the last act of most exacerbations of human misery, would then be able to return without horror and dejection. For, who can congratulate himself upon a life passed without some act more mischievous to the peace or prosperity of others, than the theft of a piece of money?

cruelty, no new danger is incurred, and greater security may be obtained, upon what principle shall we bid them forbear?

It may be urged, that the sentence is often mitigated to simple robbery; but surely this is to confess that our laws are unreasonable in our It has been always the practice when any par- own opinion; and, indeed, it may be observed, ticular species of robbery becomes prevalent and that all but murderers have, at their last hour, common, to endeavour its suppression by capital the common sensations of mankind pleading in denunciations. Thus, one generation of male- their favour. From this conviction of the ine factors is commonly cut off, and their successors quality of the punishment to the offence, proare frightened into new expedients; the art of ceeds the frequent solicitation of pardons. They thievery is augmented with greater variety of who would rejoice at the correction of a thief, frand, and subtilized to higher degrees of dexte-are yet shocked at the thought of destroying rity, and more occult methods of conveyance. him. His crime shrinks to nothing, compared The law then renews the pursuit in the heat of with his misery; and severity defeats itself' by anger, and overtakes the offender again with exciting pity. death. By this practice capital inflictions are multiplied, and crimes, very different in their degrees of enormity, are equally subjected to the

The gibbet, indeed, certainly, disables those who die upon it from infesting the community; but their death seems not to contribute more to

the reformation of their associates, than any other method of separation. A thief seldom passes much of his time in recollection or anticipation, but from robbery hastens to riot, and from riot to robbery; nor, when the grave closes upon his companion, has any other care than to find another.

sonably fear to expose it to the public, could it be supported only by my own observations. I shall, therefore, by ascribing it to its author, Sir Tho mas More, endeavour to procure it that attention, which I wish always paid to prudence, to justice, and to mercy.

TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1751.

Quædam parva quidem, sed non toleranda maritis.

Some faults, though small, intolerable grow.

The frequency of capital punishments, therefore, rarely hinders the comm..sion of a crime, but naturally and commonly prevents its detec- No. 115.) tion, and is, if we proceed only upon prudential principles, chiefly for that reason to be avoided. Whatever may be urged by casuists or politicians, the greater part of mankind, as they can never think that to pick the pocket and to pierce the heart is equally criminal, will scarcely believe that two malefactors so different in guilt can be justly doomed to the same punishment; nor is the necessity of submitting the conscience to human laws so plainly evinced, so clearly stated, or so generally allowed, but that the pious, the tender, and the just, will always scruple to concur with the community in an act which their private judgment cannot approve.

He who knows not how often rigorous laws produce total impunity, and how many crimes are concealed and forgotten for fear of hurrying the offender to that state in which there is no repentance, has conversed very little with mankind. And whatever epithets of reproach or contempt this compassion may incur from those who confound cruelty with firmness, I know not whether any wise man would wish it less powerful, or less extensive.

If those whom the wisdom of our laws has condemned to die, had been detected in their rudiments of robbery, they might, by proper discipline and useful labour, have been disentangled from their habits, they might have escaped all the temptations to subsequent crimes, and passel their days in reparation and penitence, and detected they might all have been, had the prosecutors been certain that their lives would have been spared. I believe, every thief will confess, that he has been more than once seized and dismissed; and that he has sometimes ventured upon capital crimes, because he knew, that those whom he injured would rather connive at his escape, than cloud their minds with the horrors

of his death.

All laws against wickedness are ineffectual, unless some will inform, and some will prosecute; but till we mitigate the penalties for mere violations of property, information will always be hated, and prosecution dreaded. The heart of a good man cannot but recoil at the thought of punishing a slight injury with death; especially when he remembers that the thief might have procured safety by another crime, from which he was restrained only by his remaining virtue.

The obligations to assist the exercise of public justice are indeed strong; but they will certainly be overpowered by tenderness for life. What is punished with severity contrary to our ideas of adequate retribution, will be seldom discovered; and multitudes will be suffered to advance from crime to crime, till they deserve death, because, if they had been sooner prosecuted, they would have suffered death before they deserved it.

This scheme of invigorating the laws by relaxation, and extirpating wickedness by lenity, is so re:note from common practice, that I might rea

SIR,

TO THE RAMBLER.

JUV

DRYDEN

I sir down, in pursuance of my late engagement, to recount the remaining part of the adventures that befell me in my long quest of conjugal felici. ty, which, though I have not yet been so happy as to obtain it, I have at least endeavoured to deserve by unwearied diligence, without suffering from repeated disappointments any abatement of my hope, or repression of my activity.

You must have observed in the world a spe cies of mortals who employ themselves in promoting matrimony, and without any visible inotive of interest or vanity, without any discoverable impulse of malice or benevolence, without any reason but that they want objects of attention and topics of conversation, are inces santly busy in procuring wives and husbands. They fill the ears of every single man and woman with some convenient match; and when they are informed of your age and fortune, offer a partner for life, with the same readiness, and the same indifference, as a salesman, when he has taken measure by his eye, fits his customer with a coat.

It might be expected that they should soon be discouraged from this officious interposition by resentment or contempt; and that every man should determine the choice on which so much of his happiness must depend, by his own judg ment and observation; yet it happens, that as these proposals are generally made with a show of kindness, they seldom provoke anger, but are at worst heard with patience, and forgotten. They influence weak minds to approbation; for many are sure to find in a new acquaintance, whatever qualities report has taught them to expect; and in more powerful and active understandings they excite curiosity, and sometimes by a lucky chance, bring persons of similar tempers within the attraction of each other.

I was known to possess a fortune, and to want a wife; and therefore was frequently attended by these Hymeneal solicitors, with whose importunity I was sometimes diverted, and sometimes perplexed; for they contended for me as vultures for a carcass; each employing all his eloquence, and all his artifices, to enforce and promote his own scheme, from the success of which he was to receive no other advantage than the pleasure of defeating others equally eager and equally industrious.

An invitation to sup with one of those busy friends, made me, by a concerted chance, acquainted with Camilla, by whom it was expected that I should be suddenly and irresistibly en

turbance or altercation. I therefore soon resolved to address her, but was discouraged from prosecuting my courtship, by observing that her apartments were superstitiously regular; and that, unless she had notice of my visit, she was never to be seen. There is a kind of anxious cleanliness which I have always noted as the characteristic of a slattern; it is the superfluous scrupulosity of guilt, dreading discovery, and shunning suspicion; it is the violence of an ef fort against habit, which being impelled by external motives, cannot stop at the middle point.

slaved. The lady whom the same kindness had | whom chance had brought her into company. brought without her own concurrence into the In Nitella I promised myself an easy friend, with lists of love, seemed to think me at least worthy whom I might loiter away the day without disof the honour of captivity; and exerted the power, both of her eyes and wit, with so much art and spirit, that though I had been too often deceived by appearances to devote myself irrevocably at the first interview, yet I could not suppress some raptures of admiration, and flutters of desire. I was easily persuaded to make nearer approaches; but soon discovered that a union with Camilla was not much to be wished. Camilla professed a boundless contempt for the folly, levity, ignorance, and impertinence of her own sex; and very frequently expressed her wonder that men of learning or experience could Nitella was always tricked out rather with submit to trifle away life with beings incapable nicety than elegance; and seldom could forbear of solid thought. In mixed companies she always to discover by her uneasiness and constraint, associated with the men, and declared her satis- that her attention was burdened, and her ima faction when the ladies retired. If any short ex-gination engrossed: I therefore concluded, that cursion into the country was proposed, she commonly insisted upon the exclusion of women from the party; because, where they were admitted, the time was wasted in frothy compliments, weak indulgences, and idle ceremonies. To show the greatness of her mind, she avoided all compliance with the fashion; and to boast the profundity of her knowledge, mistook the various textures of silk, confounded tabbies with damasks, and sent for ribands by wrong names. She despised the commerce of stated visits, a farce of empty form without instruction; and congratulated herself, that she never learned to write message cards. She often applauded the noble sentiment of Plato, who rejoiced that he was born a man rather than a woman; proclaimed her approbation of Swift's opinion, that women are only a higher species of monkeys; and confessed, that when she considered the behaviour, or heard the conversation of her sex, she could not but forgive the Turks for suspecting them to want souls.

It was the joy and pride of Camilla to have provoked, by this insolence, all the rage of hatred, and all the persecutions of calumny; nor was she ever more elevated with her own superiority, than when she talked of female anger and female cunning. Well, said she, has nature provided that such virulence should be disabled by folly, and such cruelty be restrained by im

potence.

Camilla doubtless expected, that what she lost on one side, she should gain on the other; and imagined that every male heart would be open to a lady, who made such generous advances to the borders of virility. But man, ungrateful man, instead of springing forward to meet her, shrunk back at her approach. She was persecuted by the ladies as a deserter, and at best received by the men only as a fugitive. I, for my part, amused myself a while with her fopperies, but novelty soon gave way to detestation, for nothing out of the common order of nature can be long borne. I had no inclination to a wife who had the ruggedness of a man without his force, and the ignorance of a woman without her softness; nor could I think my quiet and honour to by intrusted to such audacious virtue as was hourly courting danger, and soliciting assault.

My next mistress was Nitella, a lady of gentle inien, and soft voice, always speaking to approve, and ready to receive direction from those with

being only occasionally and ambitiously dressed, she was not familiarized to her own ornaments. There are so many competitors for the fame of cleanliness, that it is not hard to gain informa tion of those that fail, from those that desire to excel; I quickly found, that Nitella passed her time between finery and dirt; and was always in a wrapper, nightcap, and slippers, when she was not decorated for immediate show.

I was then led by my evil destiny to Charyb dis, who never neglected an opportunity of seizing a new prey when it came within her reach. thought myself quickly made happy by permission to attend her to public places, and pleased my own vanity with imagining the envy which I should raise in a thousand hearts, by appearing as the acknowledged favourite of Charybdis. She soon after hinted her intention to take a ramble for a fortnight, into a part of the kingdom which she had never seen. I solicited the hap piness of accompanying her, which, after a short reluctance, was indulged me. She had no other curiosity on her journey, than after all possible means of expense; and was every moment taking occasion to mention some delicacy, which knew it my duty upon such notices to procure.

After our return, being now more familiar, she told me, whenever we met, of some new diver sion; at night she had notice of a charming company that would breakfast in the gardens; and in the morning had been informed of some new song in the opera, some new dress at the playhouse, or some performer at a concert whom she longed to hear. Her intelligence was such, that there never was a show, to which she did not summon me on the second day; and as she hated a crowd, and could not go alone, I was obliged to attend at some intermediate hour, and pay the price of a whole company. When we passed the streets, she was often charmed with some trinket in the toyshops; and, from mederate desires of seals and snuff-boxes, rose, by degrees, to gold and diamonds. I now began to find the smile of Charybdis too costly for a private purse, and added one more to six-and-forty lovers, whose fortune and patience her rapacity had exhausted.

Imperia then took possession of my affections, but kept them only for a short time. She had newly inherited a large fortune, and having spent the earlier part of her life in the perusal of romances, brought with her into the gay world all

the pride of Cleopatra; expected nothing less because I kept my coat clean, and my com than vows, altars, and sacrifices; and thought plexion free from freckles; and did not come her charms dishonoured, and her power in-home, like my brother, mired and tanned, nor fringed, by the softest opposition to her senti- carry corn in my hat to the horse, nor bring dirty ments, or the smallest transgression of her coin- curs into the parlour. mands. Time might indeed cure this species of pride in a mind not naturally undiscerning, and vitiated only by false representations; but the operations of time are slow; and I therefore left her to grow wise at leisure, or to continue in error at her own expense.

Thus I have hitherto, in spite of myself, passed my life in frozen celibacy. My friends, indeed, often tell me, that I flatter my imagination with higher hopes than human nature can gratify; that I dress up an ideal charmer in all the ra- | diance of perfection, and then enter the world to look for the same excellence in corporeal beauty. But surely, Mr. RAMBLER, it is not madness to hope for some terrestrial lady unstained with the spots which I have been describing; at least, I am resolved to pursue my search; for I am so far from thinking meanly of marriage, that I believe it able to afford the highest happiness decreed to our present state; and if, after all these miscarriages, I find a woman that fills up my expectation, you shall hear once more from Yours, &c. HYMENÆUS.

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SIR,

TO THE RAMBLER.

HOR.

FRANCIS.

I WAS the second son of a country gentleman by the daughter of a wealthy citizen of London. My father having by his marriage freed the estate from a heavy mortgage, and paid his sisters their portions, thought himself discharged from all obligation to further thought, and entitled to spend the rest of his life in rural pleasures. He therefore spared nothing that might contribute to the completion of his felicity; he procured the best guns and horses that the kingdom could supply, paid large salaries to his groom and huntsman, and became the envy of the country for the discipline of his hounds. But, above all his other attainments, he was eminent for a breed of pointers and setting-dogs, which by long and vigilant cultivation he had so much improved, that not a partridge or heathcock could rest in security; and game of whatever species, that dared to light upon his manor, was beaten down by his shot, or covered with his nets.

My elder brother was very early initiated in the chace, and, at an age when other boys are creeping like snails unwillingly to school, he could wind the horn, beat the bushes, bound over hedges, and swim rivers. When the huntsman one day broke his leg, he supplied his place with equal abilities, and came home with the scut in his hat, amidst the acclamations of the whole village. I being either delicate or timorous, less desirous of honour, or less capable of sylvan heroism, was always the favourite of my mother;

My mother had not been taught to amuse her self with books, and being much inclined to despise the ignorance and barbarity of the country ladies, disdained to learn their sentiments or conversation, and had made no addition to the notions which she had brought from the precincts of Cornhill. She was, therefore, always recounting the glories of the city; enumerating the suc cession of mayors; celebrating the magnificence of the banquets at Guildhall; and relating the civilities paid her at the companies' feasts by men, of whom some are now made aldermen, some have fined for heriffs, and none are worth less than forty thousand pounds. She frequently displayed her father's greatness; told of the large bills which he had paid at sight; of the sums for which his word would pass upon the Exchange; the heaps of gold which he used on Saturday night to toss about with a shovel; the extent of his warehouse, and the strength of his doors; and when she relaxed her imagination with lower subjects, described the furniture of their country-house, or repeated the wit of the clerks and porters.

By these narratives I was fired with the splendour and dignity of London, and of trade. I therefore devoted myself to a shop, and warmed my imagination from year to year with inquiries about the privileges of a freeman, the power of the common council, the dignity of a wholesale dealer, and the grandeur of mayoralty, to which my mother assured me that many had arrived who began the world with less than myself.

I was very impatient to enter into a path, which led to such honour and felicity; but was forced for a time to endure some repression of my eagerness, for it was my grandfather's maxim, that a young man seldom makes much money, who is out of his time before two-and-twenty. They thought it necessary, therefore, to keep me at home till the proper age, without any other employment than that of learning merchants' accounts, and the art of regulating books; but at length the tedious days elapsed, I was transplanted to town, and, with great satisfaction to myself, bound to a haberdasher.

My master, who had no conception of any virtue, merit, or dignity, but that of being rich, had all the good qualities which naturally arise from a close and unwearied attention to the main chance; his desire to gain wealth was so well tempered by the vanity of showing it, that, without any other principle of action, he lived in the esteem of the whole commercial world; and was always treated with respect by the only men, whose good opinion he valued or solicited, those who were universally allowed to be richer than himself.

By his instructions I learned in a few weeks to handle a yard with great dexterity, to wind tape neatly upon the ends of my fingers, and to make up parcels with exact frugality of paper and pack thread; and soon caught from my fellowapprentices the true grace of a counter-bow, the careless air with which a small pair of scales is to be held between the fingers, and the vigour and sprightliness with which the box, after the

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