FOR THE BOSTON SPECTATOR. them, nor refuse himself a satisfaction which Thus ruined in character, and excluded from the honours of college, DECADENCE was compelled to explain to his father his disgrace and his embarrassments. To stay longer in New England was useless, but his profligacy had put it out of his power to return, without the aid of an extra thousand dollars to discharge all his pecuniary obligations. The father saw his fatal errour, in his blind indulgence, but the discovery was too late. Charles had expressed the utmost contrition, entreated his parents' forgiveness, and the privilege of returning to submit himself implicitly to their advice and control, as the greatest and only favour he had to ask, except the means of quitting the place, without the imputation of dishonesty. vy at the higher enjoyments of the more rich some real or fancied misfortunes of his own. Life is undoubtedly beset with evils, and on the waves: nay more, Religion brings us He was ordered to return immediately, and the thousand dollars were placed in his hands. He was to depart in a few days; but having some accounts to settle in Boston, he came to town; and as it was probably the last time an opportunity would present, a few of his old associates proposed that they should spend the evening together, before they bade adieu. He consented, though with some reluctance; and an apartment which had frequently been their place of rendezvous, was chosen for the meeting. His spirits were low; his friends, pasiphy is ever ready to buoy us up and bear us bly with no bad intention, urged the necessity of stimulus. Induced by the unpleasant state of his feelings and their importunity, he complied his discretion forsook him—his passions returned-cards were introduced, and when their orgies were interrupted by the stageman, at three o'clock in the morning, Charles, reduced to his last ten dollar bill, and scarcely knowing his destination, stumbled into the carriage, and was soon out of Boston. It was a bitter morning, which succeeding so severe a debauch, and four hours passing before they reached the inn, to breakfast, he crawled out of the stage, hoarse with a violent cold, aud unable to raise his head, throbbing with pain. A severe fever was the consequence, and poor DECADENCE never left the village where they stopped! There is no misfortune, that befals us in The injuries we receive from our fellow Had this promising youth been limited in his funds by a judicious parent, to such an amount as would have met his regular bills, with a reasonable allowance for occasional AGHAVARUS is always complaining of being amusement and relaxation, his ambition would have had no scope but in the pursuits of litera- persecuted; he is slandered without reason; ture. He would have been honoured for his and the malice of his enemies is labouring merit, and not intoxicated by the plaudits of continually to take away his good name. the selfish and dissolute. Having ever before Without inquiring seriously with himself, him a strong incentive to assiduity, he would whether there is not some grounds for these never have indulged in those idle habits, evil reports which are gone out against him, which certainly lead to dissipation and vice. Agravarus flies to his sectarian friends, and While the paths of virtue are pursued, they whilst he complains that his piety and evanare delightful, but if once deserted, they lose gelical principies are the cause of the scandal, their charm. Nemo repente turpissimus-but he is consoled by their good opinion, and eaby gradual aberrations, the best habits, princi-sily persuaded that the slander is unjust. But ples and dispositions of early youth may be perverted, and transformed into the worst propensities; and the fondest hopes of friends and society be blasted by the delusions of temptation, which might easily have been prevented. he should remember that there is often more AVARUS is a complainer of a different cast; he is always unhappy that the gifts of fortune are so partially bestowed, and thinks she unjustly, or capriciously, withholds from him her favours, although he is too prudent to put himself in a way to receive them. Avarus had a patrimony of fifty thousand dollars, and by his prudence and economy has increased the sum to an hundred; yet he complains that he is obliged to "labour at the oar," whilst others are rowed along at their ease, and that so many of his acquaintance were born under fortunate planets, whilst his nativity has been cast with the malignant stars, and most unlucky aspects. Thus we may often find, that those are the most apt to murmur, who have the least reason to complain; and if we kept a fair account of the pleasures of life, we should find that they by far outbalance its unavoidable troubles. The happiest person, I ever remember to have seen, was a poor fellow born a cripple, who earned his daily subsistence in the humble profession of a shoe-black. He was brought every morning in a wheel-barrow and placed at the corner of a street to spend the day, and find employment by the exercise of his craft. His whole fortune consisted in the simple implements of his trade, and you found him seated on the ground, in the midst of his riches, equally prepared to entertain your mind, or to clean your boots; and his pleasant humour would brush away the care that wrinkled your brow, as easily as he rubbed off the street dirt which collected on your shoes. He was always merry himself, and made every body else so, who came within the sphere of his cheerfulness and good humour. If you gave him sixpence,he laughed; and he appeared equally satisfied if you bestowed on him only a penny. His misfortunes were never increased by repining, nor his mind embittered by dwelling upon evils which he knew it was in the power of no human aid to remove. In short, he was contented. Let those who have higher means of enjoyment, and yet pass their lives in murmuring and dissatisfaction, go and learn the secret of being happy from the poor shoe-black. LUXURY. LUXURY, as it supplies employment and promotes industry, assists population; but it is attended with a consequence, which counteracts and often overbalances these advantages: when, by introducing more superfluities into general reception, luxury has rendered the usual accommodations of life more expensive, artificial and elaborate. The difficulty of maintaining a family, conformably with the established mode of living, becomes greater, and what each man has to spare from his personal consumption, proportionably less: the effect of which is, that marriages become less frequent, agreeably to the maxim, which lies at the foundation of this reasoning, that men will not marry to sink their place or condition in society, or to forego those indulgencies, which their own habits, or what they observe amongst their equals, have rendered necessary to their satisfaction. This principle is applicable to every article of diet and dress, to houses, furniture, and attendance; and this effect will be felt in every class of the community. As long as the prevalence of luxury is confined to a few of elevated rank, much of the benefit is felt, and little of the inconvenience. But when the imitation of the same manners descends, as it always will do, into the mass of the people; when it advances the requisites of living beyond what it adds to man's abilities to purchase them, then it is that luxury checks the formation of families in a degree that ought to alarm the publick; and becomes inore or less an evil to almost every descripion of society. STYLE OF GOLDSMITH. appointed commander in chief. The conduct WITH regard to the style of Oliver Gold- Hist. Nat. and, Description de l'Ukraine, par smith, he seems to have formed it on the model to his hand, and in the words of his illustrious friend, "nihil quod tetigit non ornavit." Port Folio. NGENUOUSNESS OF MIND. THAT darkness of character, where we can see no heart; those foldings of art, through which no native affection is allowed to penetrate, present an object, unamiable in every season of life, but particularly odious in youth. If, at an age when the heart is warm-when the emotions are strong, and where nature is expected to shew itself free and open, we can already smile and deceive, what is to be expected when we shall be longer hackneyed in the ways of the world-when interest shall have completed the obduration of our hearts, and experience shali have improved us in all the arts of guile? Doulation in youth is the forerunner of perfidy in advanced life; its first appearance is the fatal omen of growing depravity and future shame. It degrades parts and learning, obscures the lustre of every accomplishment, and sinks us into contempt. The path of falsehood is a perplexing maze. After the first departure from sincerity, it is not in our power to stop. One artifice unavoidably leads to another; till, as the intimacy of the labyrinth increases, we are left entangled in our own snare. Deceit discovers a little mind, which stoops to temporary expedients, and never suffers us to rise to comprehensive views of conduct. It betrays a dastardly spirit. It is the resource of one who wants courage to avow his designs, or to rest upon himself. To set out in the world with no other principle than a crafty attention to interest, betokens one who is des SPEECH AND SOCIAL REGULATIONS tined for creeping through the inferior walks In AMONG quadrupeds, the elephant, the horse and the dog appear to possess the greatest portion of natural speech. They are all gregarious, particularly the two former. Asia, the wild elephant, and in the Ukraine, between the Don and the Nieper, the wild horse, pursue one common plan of political society in numerous and collected troops, and are regulated by magistrates, chosen by themselves, selected out of their own bodies. By a difference of voice, combined with a difference of gesticulation, these magistrates or captains give orders, in the course of their travels from place to place, in pursuit of pasture, for the necessary dispositions and arrangements. They are extremely vigilant and active, and maintain their ranks and brigades, with as much regu larity and precision, as if they were conducted by man. Among the wild horses of the Ukraine, the captain general is commonly appointed to his station for about four or five years; at the expiration of which time, a kind of new election takes place. Every one appears to have a right to propose himself for the office, the ex-commandant not excepted; if no new candidate offer, the latter is re-elected for the same term of time; and if he be opposed, a combat succeeds, and the victor is his errour; he cannot taste the sweets of HE who thinks no man above him, but for his virtue; and none below him, but for his vice, can never be obsequious in a wrong place. My frenzied soul now loathes the day, FOR THE BOSTON SPECTATOR. T. G. FRIEND, COMPANION, AND WIFE. For honour's too dear, won by envy and strife; SELECTED. THE PARASITE-BY BEN JONSON. Is a most precious thing, dropt from above, All the wise world is little else, in nature, EPIGRAM. I GAVE fair Nan a blushing rose, And told her, beauty, like a flower, To youth's short lived, but smiling hour I told her that delays were wrong, And was, next morn, my rival's bride. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED FOR BY MUNROE, FRANCIS AND PARKER, NO. 4 CORNHILI.. Price three dollars per annum, half in advance. New subscribers may be supplied with preceding number. DEVOTED TO POLITICKS AND BELLES LETTRES. VOL. I. POLITICAL. FOR THE BOSTON SPECTATOR. WHEN we reflect on the recent prosperity of our beloved country, when we think what it might now be, and what it is, by the ill fated exertions of Mr. Madison, we are struck by the seeming resemblance of this man's disposition to that of the execrable tyrant of Rome. "CAIUS CALIGULA, the Roman emperour, would bitterly complain and rail at the happi ness of the times in which he had the ill Juck BOSTON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1814. but unable, in any shape to meet it, the Phœ- NO. L. Publick credit has received a blow, from which we do not see that it can ever recover, as long as our government, through all its departments, depends on the caprice of popular opinion. Supposing the direction of the national concerns were placed tomorrow in the hands of men of the first talents and unspotted integrity-who would place their propIt is not surprising, since the people are at erty in the national funds, when four years or last awake to the reality of their danger, that less may see these honest men superseded by much solicitude should be felt on this subject. swindlers? A government cannot merit conMany express fears lest this project, like ev-fidence, if it depend for its character on the ey thing we have heretofore witnessed under reputation of individuals by whom it may hapto reign; for nothing is so pleasant and divert the nathe of spirited measures, should termin- pen to be administered, and they be liable to ing as publick calamities. He envied the ate in a mere recital of our grievances and a sudden and frequent change. It becomes a felicity of Augustus, whose reign was honour-declaration of our rights. Many are impatient mere abstract idea, a something responsible in able, and remarkable in the slaughter and name, but not in fact; it is identified with no destruction of the legions under Quinctilius human being. An unprincipled demagogue Varus; and that of Tiberius, whose fame rises from the mass of the the people into would remain till after ages, by the ruin of power; he abuses it, and mixes again with the the theatre of Fidena. Some emperours, he multitude -the culprit is seen no more; his said, were illustrious by the burning of cities crimes are the crimes of that inaccessible and stately edifices, the depopulation of councreature of the brain, government, which the tries, murdering men and producing general people may feel, accuse, and curse, but cannot distress; whereas his reign would soon be punish. buried in oblivion, by a series of continued prosperity and therefore repeated his wishes to the gods to send some plague and famine into his dominions, or that the earth might swallow up the inhabitants, to render his reign the more remarkable." · HARTFORD CONVENTION. We have no doubt it will be ascertained, as soon as the news of the arrival of Mr. Madison's last instructions at Ghent shall reach us, that the negotiation is to be broken off, and that every chance of a peace between Great Britain and our rational government will vanish. Our ministers will return, or seek their several destinations, and England be left to complete her formidable preparations for a serious war with the United States, on the opening of Spring, when we shall see bursting upon us, the accumulated resentment of fourteen years' provocation. that some efficient purpose should be explicit- We venerate the men, who are appointed to in their wisdom and firmness. It is useless GHENT NEGOTIATION. COULD we believe that the prospect of ish government, we should congratulate our peace depended on the disposition of the Britcountry on the favourable aspect of the despatches brought by the Chauncey: we should indulge a hope that our sufferings were, at last, to be soon relieved. to indulge conjecture as to their particular their dearest interests are at hazard in common containing all the correspondence that had ocThe despatches are to the 31st of October, curred since the date of the former. effected between the two countries; and this, right of his Britannick majesty to take British The fisheries, where they could not claim an exclusive right, they did not pretend to molest in their first propositions. The privi-' lege of fishing in their waters, and of curing fish on their shores, which we had obtained by but by our proposing some equivalent. To the treaty, they still maintain, cannot be renewed, equity of this proposal, we have seen no objec Such are our prospects from abroad. At home, we find ourselves arrived at the catastrophe, which has long been foretold ;-our It is in vain that the present administration government has fairly struck the rock-its pretend that they are friends to a republican condition is helpless and hopeless. The Sec- form of government. Their unprincipled conretary of the Treasury has announced its fate, duct, by which publick faith has been violated and the last crash may be daily expected! and publick credit ruined, has exhibited a Every scheme of profligate ingenuity has practical objection to republicanism, which no been exhausted in attempts to conceal our sophistry can refute. Individuals who have situation and postpone the evil day; but in relied on the integrity of government, and advain. The government, which was appointed vanced their property for its use, have been for our security and defence, has not only cheated. Their losses will forever remain a squandered all our treasure, but used the pub-warning to check confidence, and will go fartion from any quarter. lick credit, until it is officially declared that "publick opinion, manifested IN EVERY FORM, and in EVERY DIRECTION, hardly permits us, at the present juncture, to speak of the existence of publick credit;" and this confession of national insolvency will have scarcely reached the extremes of the Union, when an enemy, probably thirty thousand strong, will be ready to begin the work of destruction. Thus surrounded by horrors of every description, which language cannot magnify, the government of our country still seeking war, towards preventing any government, of a pop- The evil, it is evident, is not confined to They have likewise agreed to adopt as the north western boundary, a line from the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi, as contemplated in the treaty of 1803. Thus far the negotiation has advanced, the British now claiming no condition as a sine qua non of peace. With respect to other boundaries, they say, they are willing" to treat on the principle, that each party shall retain whatever conquests they may have made, at the time a treaty shall be signed. Ghent. - INDIAN LANDS. Our ministers object to this-the British, arise, which did not appear to exist at September to repair to Norway, and Prince then require of them to bring forward, in the Christian is to return to Denmark in an Enform of articles or otherwise, as they may glish frigate. prefer, those specifick propositions, upon which they are empowered to sign a treaty of peace between the two countries." This last request is dated on the 31st of October, and here the correspondence closes. The commerce of the Baltick is again prosecuted with great activity; 1166 vessels passed through the Sound, in the month of Sept. Austria has ceded all the country between the Mincio and the frontiers of Piedmont, to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who is to assume the title of King of Lombardy. PERHAPS it will be gratifying to some that the English have receded from their sine qua non, and agree that we shall have the right of possessing ourselves of Indian lands" by conquest or by purchase." For ourselves we sincerely regret it. It leaves an important point to be settled among ourselves, which we had hoped to see determined, by a treaty with a foreign On the 5th of September a cloud exploded country. We must not have new states form- over Agen, in France, with a noise resembling ed in the western wilderness, to hold New- continued thunder, succeeded by a large showEngland, and indeed all the Atlantick states, er of stones. They have been examined and in perpetual vassalage. It leaves business for found to resemble others which have frequentthe Hartford Convention, which we had flat-ly fallen from the clouds, except their being tered ourselves could have been transacted at of a clearer grey. Ghent. In every point of view, it is desirable DOMESTICK Since the Canada side of that the Indian lands should remain untouch- Niagara was abandoned by our army, Genered. If we conquer them, it must be at the al McArthur, with a few troops, has made a expense of war, of which, states, that would be plundering incursion of a few miles, in which injured by its success, would bear the princi-he burnt three mills and took 300 embodied militia prisoners. They have been paroled. Nov. 24. One hundred troops left Plattsburgh for Chazy; and two hundred have marched for Sackett's harbour. How mortifying must it be-how disgraceful to our rulers, who waged war against Great Britain, for the avowed purpose of conquest, that, after prosecuting hostilities with their utmost vigour between two and three years, a proposition that each party shall hold their conquests is objectionable on our part It is not a colony of the United States, remote from the body of the nation, and difficult to defend, that the English have conquered, and hold in possession; it is an integral part of the Union-an important, valuable tract of country; taken by about two thousand troops, and kept, we must presume, in spite of all Mr. Madison can do, by a few hundred-apal burden. If obtained by purchase, it must few hundred men, three thousand miles from be with funds from the national treasury, detheir native country, occupying a portion of rived principally from states that would be inthe United States, and our ministers seeming jured by an addition of territory to the Union. to confess to the world our government's in- If acquired in either of these ways, it must be capacity to drive a small garrison from Cas- for the purpose of creating new states, as auxtine, from their very objection to the princi-iliaries to Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tenple of uti possidetis! This is a dose for the nessee, to rivet upon us our present political friends of our administration, if there be real- degradation. In this section of the Union, ly any such, which we should suppose would though comparatively abounding in population, we want liberty,more than we want land. We have too many masters already, and while we are able, must recover the privilege of having a voice in our own destinies. cover them with shame. GENERAL REGISTER. BOSTON, SATURDAY, DEC. 10, 1814. But we, FEDERALISTS, who have nothing to do with the wicked origin and disgraceful management of this war, we, like the rest of the world, are but spectators of the disgrace to which a wretched faction have exposed themselves. We can justly reproach our own government, as having produced by its folly and incapacity every obstacle, that has appeared to the immediate restoration of peace on such terms as the whole country would approve. The proposal to constitute the Indians, an independent barrier between the territories of the two nations arose from the pitiful attempt to make a conquest of Canada. And now, the The entry of the Emperour Alexander into objection to a treaty, confirining to each Vienna, on the 24th of September was unpower whatever it may have in possession, at the commonly magnificent. He was time the treaty is signed, arises from the ina-large cavalcade, in which were the Emperour bility of our government to retake the town of Castine! But let it be observed, there does not yet appear any formidable obstacle to a successful negotiation, if an accommodation on our part were sincerely desired. The British have only said they were willing" to adopt the principle of "uti possidetis" as a basis of a treaty. They have not said it must be admitted. On the contrary, when our ministers declared positively that they could hear no such condition, they wished to be informed on what ground we would treat; implying clearly, that the refusal of this proposition did not defeat the object of the negotiation. General Jackson has issued a proclamation to the free negroes and mulattoes, in New Orleans, calling on them to enlist in the service of the United States, and to receive the same bounty and pay as is given to the whites. [Exchequer bills, sinking in value like French assignats.] Nov. 23. Thirty American deserters arrived at Montreal. BENJAMIN WEST, Esq. has been elected, by an assembly from 24 towns in Cheshire County, Newhampshire, as their delegate to the Hartford Convention. CONGRESS. Our most important intelligence is from Congress. On the 27th of November, Mr. Dallas, Secretary of the Treasu FOREIGN. There are no later advices, sent a letter to the select committee to from Europe than those received by the Chauncey, of which we have already given the prominent particulars. Francis, King of Prussia, King of Bavaria, It is reported that the Archduke Charles is On the 6th of October a grand festival took place in the Augustin, to celebrate the peace, and in honour of the Austrian veterans, attend ed by all the august sovereigns, the Princes, and their numerous suites, in Vienna. The A military force has entered Cadiz, to com- whom the project of a national bank was referred, in which the most gloomy predictions that have any where appeared, as to the state of the national finances and credit are fully verified. He states that on coming into that office, be found the "Treasury suffering under every kind of embarrassment-demands upon the government to a very great amount, while the means to satisfy them were comfragment of an authority to borrow money, paratively small. These means consisted of the when nobody was disposed to lend, and to istous creditors, or contractors in distress, &c. sue Treasury notes, which none but necessiseemed willing to accept Of bank credits, scattered through the Union, but principally where the banks had stopped payment in specie-and of the current supply of money from imposts, internal duties, and the sales of publick land, which would not even provide for the dividends on the funded debt. He states that the act authorizing the receipt of Treasury notes, in payment of subscriptions to a publick loan, was passed too late to promise relief that "a large amount of Treasury notes had already been dishonoured; and that the hope of preventing further injury and reproach, in transacting the business of the Treasury, was too visionary to afford a moment's consolation!!"-That "publick opinion, manifested in every form, and in every direction, hardly permitted him, at the present credit." He supposes that government, by a The English ambassador at Madrid has suc- juncture, to speak of the existence of publick the execution of the order prohibiting the in- great exertion, might find the means of suptroduction of English woolen and cotton goods. plying its present wants But" continues Tranquillity is perfectly restored in Norway. he, "when the wants of to-day are supplied, The Prince royal of Sweden, and the duke of what is the new expedient that shall supply Sudermania left Gottenburgh, on the 25th of the wants of tomorrow?" Our hopes would therefore be sanguine, were we not persuaded that Mr. Madison's instructions of last October were such, as will raise the tone of our ministers. What they were, we know not; but that they will prevent peace may be inferred from several circumstances, which we have noticed in former papers; and we are confirmed in this belief, from observing that the Intelligencer, containing these documents, which the whole country will consider as of a promising and encourag-ceeded in postponing at least for some months, ing character, checks any expectation of a pacifick result. This cannot be from the import of the despatches. It must be either dictated by Mr. Madison, or by the consciousness of the Editor, that other difficulties would FOR THE BOSTON SPECTATOR. THE WRITER, No. XXX. I HAVE already informed my readers that I was a bachelor. but have not yet told them by what misfortunes I have so long remained one. The history of my life and amours will convince the world that I have not been indifferent to hymeneal honours; but that several untoward events, which frequently occur in the vicissitudes of human life, and perhaps some fastidious notions of my own, have hitherto thwarted my desires, and kept me shut out from the pale of matrimony. As I had always a high opinion of the pleasures of a married life, I considered it of the utmost importance, in selecting a companion, to make a prudent choice. I remembered that and one day, when I was upon the point of Love free as air at sight of human ties husband. I next paid my addresses to a young lady of "Of earthly things the best is a good wife- to her, that had no farther pretension to her so anxious to ago, when it was the fashion to wear hoops, The first young lady, upon whom my affections were placed, I believe now, was, in all respects, amiable and innocent; she was certainly handsome and very engaging, and, had not my chimerical notions of getting a fault-period of my history was about thirty years less wife led me to conjecture faults where there were none, I believe I should have been very happy in marrying her. She had a fine blooming complexion, and one day, as I accirunning up to her toilet chamber with a cup of dentally called at her house, I surprized her red paint in her hand; my suspicions immnediately conceived it to be rouge, and concluded that the beautiful glow on her cheeks was not natural. I soon left her, as it would have been imprudent to marry a girl who painted. I found, however, when it was too late, that she only painted flowers; and that what had so offended and alarmed me, was only some vermilion, which was to be innocently applied in colouring a rose. with my fair widow, because I thought she grew old must be less scrupulous in the choice of a wife, or be constrained to travel the dreary and vacant road of life without one. I therefore drew up a list of females, out of which I was resolved to take one "for better for worse," My plan was to visit them successively, and, as I discovered a fault, dash her name from the list, and hold to the last that remained. But when I once began to dash, I found there was no ending. My list consisted of fifteen respectable names, but, in less than as many weeks, they were all crossed off. Still, being resolute, I made out another list of twenty; but being so imprudent as to show it to one of my brother bachelors, who unfortunately had not so high an opinion of the sex nor of the marriage state as myself, he very unfeelingly drew a pen across the whole list at once, and dashed them all out together. I could not but compare him in this act of barbarity to Nero, who wished that all mankind had but one head on their shoulders, that he might strike it off at a single blow. And I verily believe, if I had presented him with a universal catalogue of women, he would, with the same sang froid, have crossed out the whole sex. My whims began now to be known, and my company was rather shunned than courted by the ladies. If I attempted to associate with the young ones, they called me an old bachelor; and if I visited those who were a little more advanced, they would ask me, in derision, if they were on my list? In short, I, who had always considered that almost every woman would have thought herself honoured by my hand, could now find no one willing to ac And I have been taught, when it is cept it. too late, that slighted joys will be revenged hopes for the virtuous and lasting pleasures of out in a hoop petticoat. I was now sensible love, must not put on an armour which will her fashionable fame, by being the first to lead upon the head of the offender; and that he who of my error, and would have been glad to be wholly resist his shafts, nor be too sharp-sightreinstated in her favour; but she was engaged, when he would sacrifice to that Deity, who ed to a gentleman, who soon afterwards receiv- is always represented blind. ed her hand, and has ever since been very happy in his choice. I next courted a young widow, and although she was handsome herself, yet I must confess that a very handsome fortune, left by her first husband, was among the number of her charms, and had no inconsiderable influence to induce the desire of possessing them all. I was in It was not long before I became attached to a second person, who was equally beauti- the high road of success, when one of my friends hinted to me, that if I only wanted a ful with the first, but who had a different taste for amusement As one had a turn for paint- wife, I might be happy, but I should be dising, the other had as great a passion for poe- appointed if I expected a fortune; for that Brama, the first husband of my widow, had try; and what is singular, these innocent and left her his property only during her widowelegant refinements were each the occasion of losing them a lover. My new acquaint-hood, and that, by his will, the whole of his esance, as she thought me rather pleased with, than opposed to poetry, was often repeating some favourite couplets from the best authors; tate, upon her second marriage, would pass to MATHEMATICAL REASONING. NOTHING is less applicable to the conduct of life than mathematical reasoning: a proposition in figures is either decidedly false or true; in all other relations the true mixes itself with the false in such a manner, that often instinct alone can make us decide between different motives, which are sometimes equally The study of the powerful on either side mathematicks, accustoming us to certainty, irritates us against all opinions, opposite to our own; while that which is most important to our conduct in this world is to understand our fellow creatures, that is to say, to comprehend all that induces them to think or to feel differently from ourselves. The mathe |