intereft him; and he is not likely to lend a very helping hand to the happinefs of the union, whose most laborious exertions have hitherto been little more than a selfish stratagem to reconcile health with pleafure. Excefs of gratification has only ferved to make him irritable and exacting; it will of course be no part of his project to make facrifices, but to receive them and what would appear Incredible to the Paladius of gallant times, and the Chevaliers Preux of more heroic days, even in the necef fary bufinefs of eftablishing himself for life, he fometimes is more difpofed to expect attentions than to make advances.

:

Thus the indolent fon of fashion, with a thoufand fine, but dormant qualities, which a bad tone of manners forbids him to bring into exercife; with real energies which that tone does not allow him to difcover, and an unreal apathy which it commands him to feign; with the heart of a hero, perhaps, if called into the field, he affects at home the manners of a Sybarite; and he who, with a Roman, or what is more, with a British valour, would leap into the gulph at the call of public duty,

Yet in the foft and piping time of peace, when fashion had refumed her rights, he would murmur if a rofe leaf lay double under him.

The clubs above alluded to, as has been faid, generate and cherish luxurious habits, from their perfect eafe, undrefs, liberty, and equality of diftinction in rank; they promote a fpirit for play, and in fhort, every temper and fpirit which tends to undo-, mefticate; and what adds to the mif. chief is, all this is attained at a cheap. rate compared with home in the fame Ayle.

Thefe indulgencies, and that habit. of mind, gratify fo many paffions, that it can never be counteracted fuccefsfully by any thing of its own kind, or which gratifies the fame habits.

Now if a paffion for gratifying vanity, and a fpirit of diffipation, is a paffion of the fame kind; and therefore, though for a few weeks, a man who has chofen his wife in the haunts of diffipation, and this wife, a woman made up of accomplishments; may, from the novelty of the connection and of the scene, continue domeftic; yet in a little time fhe will find that thofe paffions, to which the has trufted for making his married life pleafant, will long for the more comfortable pleasures of the club, and he will, while they are pui fued, be configned over to folitary evenings at home, or driven back to the old diffipations.

To conquer the paffion for club gratifications, a woman must not ftrive to feed it with fufficient ali ment in the fame kind in her fociety, either at home or abroad; for this the cannot do but she must fupplant and overcome it by a paffion of a different nature, which Providence has kindly placed within us, the love of fire-fide employments. But to qualify herfelf for adminißering thefe, fhe mult cultivate her understanding and her heart; and her temper, acquiring at the fame time that modicum of accomplishments suited to his tafte, which may qualify her for poffeffing, both for him and for herfelf, greater varieties of fafe recreation.

S

One great caufe of the want of attachment in those modifh couples is, that by living in the world at large, they are not driven to depend on each other as the chief fource of comfort. Now it is pretty clear, in spite of modern theories, that the very frame and being of focieties, whether great or fmall, public or private, is jointed and glued together by dependence. Those attachments which arife from, and are compacted by, a fenfe of mutual wants, mutual affection, mutual benefit, and mutual obligation, are the cement which fecure the u

nion of the family as well as of the

flate..

Unfortunately, when two young perfons of the above defcription mar ry, the union is fometimes confidered rather as the end than the beginning of an engagement: the attachment of each to the other, is rather viewed as an object already completed, than as one which marriage is to confirm more clofely. But the companion for life is not always chofen from the pureft motive: fhe is felected, per haps, because she is admired by other men, rather than because the poffeffes in an eminent degree thofe peculiar qualities, which are likely to conftitute the individual happiness of the man who chooses her. Vanity ufurps the place of affection; and indolence fwallows up the judgment. Not happiness, but fome eafy fubftitute for happiness is purfued; and a choice which may excite envy, rather than produce fatisfaction, is adopted as the means of effecting it.'.

The pair, not matched, but joined, fet out feparately with their independent and individual purfuits; whether it made a part of their original plan or not, that they fhould be indifpenfably neceffary to each other's comfort, the fenfe of this neceffity, probably not very strong at firft, rather diminishes than increafes by time; they live fo much in the world, and fo little together, that to ftand well with their own fet continues the favourite project of each; while to ftand well with each other is confidered as an under-part of the plot in the drama of life. Whereas, did they start in the conjugal race with the fixed idea, that they were to look to each other for the principal happinefs of life, not only principle, but prudence, and even felfifhnels, would convince them of the neceffity of fedulously cultivating each other's eleem and affection, as the grand fpring of promoting that hap pinefs. But vanity, and the defire

of flattery and applaufe, ftill continue to operate. Even after the husband is brought to feel a perfect indifference for his wife, he ftill likes to fee her decorated in a ftyle, which may ferve to justify his choice. He encourages her to fet off her person, not so much for his own gratification, as that his felf-love may be flattered, by her continuing to attract the admiration of thofe whofe opinion is the ftandard by which he measures his fame, and which fame is to stand him in the ftead of happiness. Thus is the neceffarily expofed to the twofold temptation of being at once neglected by her husband, and exhibited as an object of attraction to other men. If the escape this complicated danger, he will be indebted for her prefervation, not to his prudence, but to her own principles.

In fome of thofe modifh marriages, instead of the decorous neatnefs, the pleasant intercourfe, and the mutual warmth of communication of the once focial dinner; the late and uninterefting meal is commonly hurried over by the languid and flovenly pair, that the one may have time to drefs for his club, and the other for her party. And in thefe cold abstracted têtes-àtetes, they often take as little pains to entertain each other, as if the one was precifely the only human being in the world in whofe eyes the other did not feel it neceffary to appear agreeable.

But if thefe young, and perhaps really amiable perfons, could struggle against the imperious tyranny of fashion, and contrive to pafs a little time together, fo as to get acquainted with each other; and if each would live in the lively and confcientious exercife of those talents and attractions, which they fometimes know how to produce on occafions not quite fo juftifiable; they would, I am perfuaded, often find out each other to be very agreeable people. And both of them, delighted and delight

ing, receiving and bestowing happinefs, would no longer be driven to to the anxious neceffity of perpetually flying from home, as from the only fcene which offers no poffible ma terials for pleafure.

It may feem a contradiction to have afferted, that beings of all ages, tempers, and talents, fhould with fuch unremitting industry follow up any way of life if they did not find fome enjoyment in it; yet I appeal to the bosoms of thefe inceffant hunters in the chase of pleafure, whether they are really happy. No.-In the full tide and torrent of diverfion, in the full blaze of gayety,

The heart diftrufting afks if this be joy? But there is an anxious reftleffness excited by the purfuit, which, if not interefting, is bustling. There is the dread and partly the difcredit of being fufpected of having one hour un mortgaged, not only to fucceffive, but contending engagements; this it is, and not the pleafure of the engagement itfelf, which is the object. There is an agitation in the arrangements, which imposes itself on the vacant heart for happinefs. There is a tumult kept up in the fpirits, which is a bufy though treacherous fubftitute for comfort. The multiplicity of folicitations fooths vanity. The very regret that they cannot be all accepted has its charms; for dignity is flattered because refufal implies importance, and pre-engagement intimates celebrity. Then there is the joy of being invited when others are neglected; the triumph of showing one's lefs modifh friend that one is going where the cannot come; and the feigned regret at being oblig ed to go, affumed before her who is half wild at being obliged to ftay a way. Thefe are fome of the fupplemental shifts for happiness, with which vanity contrives to feed her bungry followers; too eager to be nice.

In the fucceffion of open houses,

in which pleasure is to be started and purfued on any given night, the ac tual place is never taken into the account of enjoyment: the fcene of which is always fuppofed to lie in any place where her votaries happen not to be. Pleasure has no prefent tenfe: but in the house which her purfuers have juft quitted, and in the house to which they are juft haftening, a ftranger might conclude the flippery goddefs had really fixed her throne, and that her worshippers confidered the exifting fcene, which they feem compelled to fuffer, but from which they are eager to escape, as really detaining them from fome pofitive joy to which they are flying in the next crowd; till, if he meet them there, he will find the component parts of each precifely the fame. He would hear the fame ftated phrafes interrupted, not anfwered, by the fame replies; the unfinished fentence

driven adverfe to the winds,' by preffing multitudes; the fame warm regret mutually exchanged by two friends (who had been exprefsly denied to each other all the winter) that they had not met before: the fame foft and fmiling forrow at being torn away from each other now; the fame anxiety to renew the meeting, with perhaps the fame fecret refolution to avoid it.. He would hear defcribed with the fame pathetic earneftness the difficulties of getting into this houfe, and the dangers of getting out of the last! the perilous retreat of former nights, effected amid the fhock of chariots and the clang of contending coachmen! a retreat indeed affected with a skill and peril little inferior to that of the ten thoufand, and detailed with far jufter triumph; for that which happened only once in a life to the Grecian hero, occurs to these British heroines every night. There is one point of refemblance, indeed, between them, in which the comparison fails; for the commander, with a mauvaise honte,

at

of the natives. I knew that I was able to bear fatigue; and I relied on my youth, and the ftrength of my conftitution to preserve me from the effects of the climate. The falary which the Committee allowed me was fufficiently large; and I made no ftipulation for future reward. If I should perish in my journey I was willing that my hopes and ex pectations fhould perifh with me; and if I fhould fucceed in rendering the geography of Africa more familiar to my countrymen, and in opening to their ambition and indufiry new sources of wealth, and new channels of commerce, I knew that I was in the hands of men of honour, who would not fail to beftow that remuneration which my fuccefsful fervices should appear to them to merit. The Committee of the Affociation, having made fuch enquiries as they thought neceffary, declared themfelves fatisfied with the qualifications that I poffeffed, and accepted me for the fervice; and, with that liberality which on all occafions diftinguishes their conduct, gave me every encouragement which it was in their power to grant, or which I could with propriety ask."

His inftructions were plain and concife: "I was directed," fays he, "on my arrival in Africa, to pafe on to the river Niger, either by the way of Bambouk, or by fuch other route as fhould be found moft convenient. That I fhould ascertain the courfe, and if poffible, the rife and termination of the river. That I fhould ufe my utmost exertions to vifit the principal towns or cities in its neighbourhood, particularly Tombuctoo and Houffa; and that I fhould be afterwards at liberty to return to Europe, either by the way of Gambia, or by fuch other route, as under all the then exifting circumftances of my fituation and profpects fhould appear to me to be most adviseable."

He accordingly failed from Portf

mouth the 22d, of May 1795. On the 4th of June faw the mountains over Mogadore on the coaft of Africa, and on the 21ft of the fame month anchored at Jellifree on the northern bank of the river Gambia. On the 23d he departed from Jellifree and proceeded to Ventain, which he left the 26th, and in fix days reached Jonkakonda, where advice was fent to Dr Laidley, to whom he had letters of credit, of his arrival. That gentleman haftened to him the following morning, and invited him to his houfe at Pifania, where he arrived the next day.

"Being now," fays he, "fettled fome time at my eafe, my first object was to learn the Mandingo tongue, being the language in almoft general ufe throughout this part of Africa; and without which I was fully convinced that I never could acquire an extenfive knowledge of the country or its inhabitants. In this purfuit I was greatly affifted by Dr Laidley, who by a long refidence in the country, and conftant refidence with the natives, had made himself completely mafter of it. Next to the language my great object was to collect information concerning the countries I intended to vifit. On this occafion I was referred to certain traders called Statees. Thefe are free black merchants, of great confideration in this part of Africa, who come down from the interior countries chiefly with enflaved Negroes for fale; but I foon discovered that very little dependance could be placed on the accounts which they gave; for they contradicted each other in the most important partículars, and all of them feemed extremely unwilling that I should profecute my journey. These circumstances increafed my anxiety, to afcertain the truth from my own perfonal observations."

"In researches of this kind, and in obferving the manners and cuttoms of the natives in a country fo