that old Age approaches almoft as foon as we begin to live.'

Such, indeed, is frequently. the Language of human Creatures, who lose the most valuable Parts of every Day. Such too have I heard from your Mouth, but then, indeed, you rife-by Eleven.

Lucinda and myfelf who are great Advocates for early Hours, want much to try whether we cannot reform you, as we have already done Leontes; and fhould therefore rejoice to fee you amongst us; there is then fome Probability of your feeing the Sun rife, which I fincerely believe you have not done for many Years, and which is one of the most pleafing Scenes upon the Theatre of Nature. I am, &c.

LETTER VIII.

To Lucinda, on the Happiness of a domeftic Matrimonial

AF

Life.

July 5, 1770. FTER fo many Years which we have paffed, my Lucinda, almoft without Separation, one would naturally imagine that the few Days Abfence I have known fhould not be difpleafing, and yet, believe me, I am already tired of the Town, and am preparing to leave it with the utmoft Expedition to return to domeftic Joys.

When I reflect on my Difpofition, I am greatly thankful to Providence that the fame Diflike for public Pleasures has always prevailed in Lucinda as myself, and that we have been actuated by the fame Inclinations during the Tenor of our Lives.

Though I own myself in general but little fond of the Town, yet I never fail of teeing Objects in it which remind me of my own Felicity, and increase the Love I bear you. Alas! my Dear, the fashionable Tenor of matrimonial Lives is fo little fuited to my Turn of Mind, that I must have been wretched with what is now called a very good Wife. I could by no Means have endured to fee the Heart of the Woman I loved, entirely devoted to Pleafure, nor have even been cóntent to share it with the King of Trumps.

It

It is, however, happy for Mankind, that the fame Delicacy does not univerfally prevail, as there are now many Couples who are thought to be happy, because the Wife has never tranfgrefled the Bounds of Virtue, nor the Husband treated her with Language which he would be ashamed to ufe to a Stranger. Their Amufements are diftinct from each other, they know nothing of that heart-felt Joy which arifes from being with thofe they love, fecluded from every Eye, and breathing the Sweets of the balmy Evening. Their only Care is refining thofe Pleasures which Repetition has rendered duil, and inventing new Arts to pafs the tedious Day. which, notwithstanding their Endeavours, affords fome Hours in which that most impertinent of all Companions, called Self, never fails of Intrufion.

There are many Women in the World, I believe, to whom I might have made a good Hufband; but I do not recollect any one but my Lucinda who could have made me a happy one. How greatly then am I indebted to thy amiable Difpofition and Virtues, fince Indifference and Content are to be incompatible in the Marriage State. To Heaven, likewife, my fincereft Thanks are due, for preferving its best and most valuable Gift to blefs my Life. For as Milton elegantly expreffes it,

With thee converfing, I forget all Time; All Seafons and their Change, all pleafe alike. Sweet as the Breath of Morn her Rifing sweet, With Charm of earliest Birds; pleasant the Sun, When first on this delightful Land he spreads His orient Beams, on Herb, Tree, Fruit and Flower, Glift'ring with Dew; fragrant the fertile Earth After foft Show'rs; and fweet the coming on Of grateful Evening mild; then filent Night, With this her folemn Bird, and this fair Moon, And thefe the Gems of Heaven, her ftarry Train: But neither Breath of Morn when the afcends With Charm of earliest Birds; nor rifing SunOn this delightful Land; nor Herb, Fruit, Flower, Glift'ring with Dew; nor Fragrance, after Showers; Nor grateful Evening mild; nor filent Night,

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With

With this, her folemn Bird, nor walk by Moon,
Or glittering Starlight without thee is fweet.

Having once begun thofe beautiful Lines of my Lu, cinda's favourite Poet, I found it impoffible to break off fooner; nay, I was pleased to be able to express so ele. gantly, the Language of my Heart.

Arathes, who is juft come in, and has looked over my Shoulder, upon feeing fo much Poetry, cried out, very fine, truly, I fhall take the firft Opportunity to inform Lucinda of this, I affure you. If you have any Thing, I replied, to acquaint Lucinda with, you may make Use of me, for I am now writing to her. How's this, fays Aranthes, what, larding your Letters with Poetry, after more than twenty Years Marriage? I concluded you were addreffing fome other Fair One, and endeavouring to foften her inexorable Heart by the Mufe's Affiftance. But come with me to Lady

St

Not a Word, however, of Lucinda all Night; to be feen with fuch an old-fashioned Creature as you, would fpoil my Reputation entirely, if your Character fhould once be known.

You know Aranthes, my Lucinda, extremely well, and will perceive, by this, that he is fill the fame Man as ever. He defires me to apologize for his taking me from you, as he calls it, and at the fame Time to fend you his Compliments. My Bleffing to the Children, whom I fhall make happy by fome little Prefents at my Return; to thee, my Love, I fhall bring a Heart more truly thine than ever, more intimately acquainted with thy Virtues, and more perfectly convinced of its own Felicity. Believe me, &c.

I

LETTER IX.

To Cleanthes, on Friendship, Age and Death.

Nov. 15, 1770. T is no fmall Alleviation of that Anxiety which. the Lofs of a Friend produces, to reflect that the fame Virtues which procured him our Efteem, will likewife entitle him to eternal Happiness. This Confolation I received upon clofing the Eyes of Ariftus,

the

the last and most melancholy Office which Friendship can perform.

At length, my Cleanthes, that Friendship, which we once divided, is now confined to ourfelves. We have feen those who advanced with us along the Vale of Life, fink into the Grave, and have lived to be the only Links of the Chain of Friendship which we helped to conftitute at our Entrance on the World. We have together, in the Hours of Youth, looked back and defpifed the Toys of Infancy, in our Manhood we have fmiled at the Pleasures of our Youth, and are now come to that Age in which we look back on all alike, and confider every Profpect that terminates on this Side the Grave as beneath our Notice or Regard.

At this Seafon of Life, one of the most confiderable Pleasures which remains to human Nature, is the Recollection of the Moments which are paft. Now, whilft I write, my Cleanthes, I recall with Satisfaction the Time in which we were induced, by a Parity of Sentiments, to form the focial Connection, and the fteady Union in which we have. paffed from that Hour to the prefent. The Time approaches which must put a Period to our Friendship, none hope that Providence will extend their Lives to an unusual Length but those who fear to die; as for ourselves, we have reached that Age which few are born to attain, and which, in the Language of an admired Writer, requires a great deal of Providence to produce. I flatter myself, that our Days have been fo spent, that we have no Reafon to tremble at the Thought of our laft, nor imbitter the remaining Part of our Life with Apprehenfions for the inevitable Hour to come.

We have lent the Tear of Pity to Distress, and alleviated the Misfortunes of our Fellow Creatures, we have neither indulged our Paffions, nor neglected the Praife we owe the Author of our Mercies. Why, therefore fhould we tremble? We leave a World, whofe Pleasures we are no longer capable of poffeffing, we have paffed thro' its Enjoyments, and have found them vain, we leave it for the happieft of States: And yet the tender Tie of Parents holds us; we must leave thofe whom Nature obliges us to love: Yet let us re

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member

member that we leave them to the Care of a divine Pro vidence, and be thankful that we were not called whilft their Minds were yet unformed, or we had conducted them from the Budding to the Bloom of Reafon.

If at any Time a Kind of Wish arifes which would defer the Hour that Heaven has alloted for my last, 'tis when I am furrounded by my Family, and obferve the Looks of Tendernels which they gratefully bestow on me; yet fometimes their being prefent has the oppofite Effect, and I am apprehenfive left the Moment fhould not arrive till I mourn the Lofs of a Child.

I know not that any Thing would give more confiderable Amusement than our reviewing together our past Lives, and recollecting the Dangers we have past from the Storms of our Paffions, when now Time has lulled them to reft. It would not be unentertaining, I imagine, to collect the various Opinions and Ideas we have had of the fame Object, and mark the Progrefs of the human Mind through the different Stages of Life. Cleanthes, therefore, who enjoys the Bleffing of Health in a more eminent Degree than his Friend, will haften to fee and give him the greatest Satisfaction he can poffibly know.

I write this from the Grotto which Lucinda's Fancy decorated, and where we have paffed fo many happy Hours. Providence has taken Care to wean us from the Love of Life by Degrees. Scarce have we reached the ripened Age of Manhood before we have more Friends in the Grave than furviving, and from that Moment, which is almost the first of serious Reflection, we begin to perceive the Vanity of human Happiness. It was the Will of Heaven that I should mourn the Lofs of my Lucinda, and feel the Pang of Separation, yet not till we had grown old in Love, and fweetened the greatest Part of our Lives with connubial Happiness. Since the Retrospect Part of our Lives prefents us with nothing which should terrify our Imagination, let us pafs the remaining Days which Heaven fhall allot us in calm Serenity, and in Refignation to the divine Will.

Whenever