like the Body, is tired by being always in one Pofture, too ferious breaks, and too diverting loofens it: It is Variety that gives the Relish; fo that Diverfions too frequently repeated, grow firft to be indifferent, and at last tedious: Whilft they are well-chofen and well-timed, they are never to be blamed; but when they are used to an Excefs, tho' very innocent at first, they often grow to be criminal, and never fail to be impertinent.

Some Ladies are befpoken for merry Meetings, as Beffus, in the Play, was for Duels. They are engaged in a Circle of Idleness, where they turn round for the whole Year, without the Interruption of a ferious Hour. They know all the Players Names, and are intimately acquainted with every Booth in Bartholomew-Fair. No Soldier is more obedient to the Sound of his Captain's Trumpet, than they are to that which fummoneth them to a Puppet-Play or

a Monster.

The Spring, that brings out Flies and Fools, makes them Inhabitants in the Parks; in the Winter they are ăn Incumbrance to the Play-Houfe, and the Ballast of the Drawing-Room. The Streets all this while are fo weary of thefe daily Faces, that Men's Eyes are overlaid with them. The Sight is glutted with fine Things, as the Stomach with fweet ones; and when a Fair Lady will give too much of herfelf to the World fhe grows lufcious, and oppreffes inftead of pleafing. Thefe jolly Ladies do fo continually feek Diverfion, that in a little Time they grow into a Jeft, yet are unwilling to remember, that if they were feldomer feen, they would not be fo often laugh'd at. Befides, they make themfelves cheap, than which there cannot be an unkinder Word bestowed upon the Female Sex.

To

To play fometimes to entertain Company, or for Wo men to divert themselves, is not to be difallow'd; but to do it so often as to be called, Gamefters, is to be avoided, next to Things that are moft criminal. It has Confequences of feveral Kinds not to be endured; it will engage them into a Habit of Idleness and ill Hours, draw them into mixed Company, make them neglect their Civilties abroad, and their Business at home, and impofe into their Acquaintance fuch as will do them no Credit.

To deep Play there will be yet greater Objections: It will give Occafion to the World to ask fpiteful Questions: How they dare venture to lofe, and what Means they have to pay fuch great Sums? If they pay exactly, it will be enquired from whence the Money comes? If they owe, and especially to a Man, they must be fo very civil to him for his Forbearance, that it lays a Ground for having it farther improved, if the Gentleman is fo difpofed, who will be thought no unfair Creditor, if, where the Eftate fails, he feizes upon the Perfon. Befides, if a Lady could fee her own Face upon an ill Game, at a deep Stake, fhe would certainly forfwear any thing that could put her Looks under fuch a Difadvantage: And as a certain ingenious Poet fays, fpeaking of Ladies playing at Hazard,

If the Fair Ones their Charms did fufficiently prize,
Their Elbows they'd fpare for the Sake of their Eyes.

To dance fometimes will not be imputed to a Lady as a Fault; but then the is to remember, that the End of her learning it was, that the might the better know how to move gracefully. It is only an Advantage fo far, when it

goes beyond it, one may call it excelling in a Mistake, which is no very great Commendation. It is better for a Woman never to dance, because she has no Skill in it, than to do it too often, because she does it well. The eafieft, as well as the fafeft, Method of doing it, is in private Company, among particular Friends, and then carelefly like a Diverfion, rather than with Solemnity, as if it was a Business, or had any thing in it to deferve a Month's Preparation, by serious Conference with a Dancing Master.

H

CHAP. XI.

of WI VE S.

AVING now conducted the Virgin to the Entrance of another State, we must shift the Scene and attend her thither alfo: And here fhe is launched into a wide Sea, that one Relation of a Wife drawing after it many others; for as the efpoufes the Man, fo fhe does his Obligations alfo; and wherever he, by Ties of Nature, or Alliance, owes a Reverence or Kindness, fhe is no lefs a Debtor. Her Marriage is an Adoption into his Family, and therefore she is, to every Branch of it, to pay what their Stations there do refpectively require. To define which more particularly, would be a Work of more length than profit; we fhall, therefore, confine the prefent Confideration to the Relation fhe ftands in to her Husband, (and what is ufually concomitant with that) her Children,

and

and her Servants, and fo fhall confider her in the three Capacities of a Wife, a Mother, and a Miftrefs.

In that of a Wife her Duty has feveral Refpects, as it relates, First, To his Perfon; Secondly, To his Reputation; Thirdly, To his Fortune. The firft Debt to his Perfon is Love, which we find fet as the prime Article in the Marriage Vow. And, indeed, that is the most effential Requifite; without this it is only a Bargain and Compact, a Tyranny, perhaps, on the Man's Part, and a Slavery on the Woman's. It is Love only that cements the Hearts, and where that Union is wanting, it is but a Shadow, a Carcafs of Marriage. Therefore, as it is very neceffary to bring fome Degree of this to this State, fo it is no lefs to maintain and improve it in it. This is it which facilitates all other Duties of Marriage; makes the Yoke fit fo lightly, that it rather pleases than galls. It should, therefore, be the Study of Wives to preferve this Flame, that, like the Veftal Fire, it may never go out: And to that End carefully to guard it from all those things which are naturally apt to extinguish it; of which Kind are all Frowardness and little Perverfenefs of Humour; all fullen and morofe Behaviour, which by taking off from the Delight and Complacency of Converfation, will, by degrees, wear off the Kindness.

But of all we know nothing more dangerous than that unhappy Paffion of Jealoufy, which tho' it is faid to be the Child of Love, yet, like the Viper, its Birth is the certain Deftruction of the Parent. As, therefore, they must be nicely careful to give their Hufbands no Colour, no leaft Umbrage for it; fo fhould they be as refolute to refift all that occurs to themselves, be fo far from that bufy Curiofity,

Curiofity, that Industry to find Caufes of Sufpicion, that even where they prefented themfelves they fhould avert the Confideration; put the most candid Conftruction upon any doubtful Action. And, indeed, Charity in this Inftance has not more of the Dove than of the Serpent. It is infinitely the wifeft Course, both in relation to her prefent Quiet, and her future Innocence. The entertaining a jealous Fancy, is the admitting the most treacherous, the most disturbing Inmate in the World; and she opens her Breaft to a Fury that lets it in. 'Tis certainly one of the most enchanting Frenzies imaginable, keeps her always in a moft reftlefs importunate Search after that which she dreads and abhors to find, and makes her equally miferable when she is injured and when she is not.

And as the totally lofes her Eafe, fo 'tis odds but she will part alfo with fome Degrees of her Innocence. Jealoufy is commonly attended with a black Train; it musters all the Forces of our irafcible Part to abet its Quarrel, Wrath and Anger, Malice and Revenge; and by how much the Female Impotence to govern thofe Paffions is the greater, fo much the more dangerous is it to admit that which will fo furely fet them in an Uproar. For if Jealously be, as the wife Man, fays, the Rage of a Man, Prov. vi. 34. we may well think it may be the Fury, the Madnefs of a Woman. And, indeed, all Ages have given tragical Inftances of it, not only in the most indecent Fiercenefs and Clamour, but in the folemn Mifchiefs of actual Revenges. Nay, it is to be doubted there have been some whose Malice has rebounded; who have ruined themselves in Spight, have been adulterous by way of Retaliation, and taken more fcandalous Liberties than those they complained of in their Husbands: