muft have fatal confequences. Can there be any thing more honourable for a woman than the right management of her family? And it may be. obferved to them,. that they must take their choice, either to manage their children and fervants, or to be managed by them. If liberty is the thing they aim at, they certainly mistake the road. A woman's freedom confifts in power, and not in a license to gad about, which is fcandalous even in a girl, and bespeaks a giddiness of foul below compaffion. The conduct of the estate or business ought furely to be in the husband; and if he parts with it, it is an act of weakness. The conduct of the house belongs as juftly to the wife; and no man ought to marry a woman whom he would not trust with the management of such concerns. Adieu, dear friend! incroach not on the province of your husband, but continue to be mistress in your own. I am, Your affectionate friend, SYLVIA SHARP. LETTER XVII. From a Lady to her acquaintance, on growing old. I My dear Lucy, HAVE been thinking that human understanding is no lefs liable to be unhinged than the mechanism of the human frame. The leaft jar of a furprife puts it out of tune, and one cannot presently get into order again. We have certainly paffions of the mind, as well as difeafes of the body, which we are not aware of till fome fudden accident calls them forth; and the one are no lefs capable of fufpending the faculties of reafon for a time than the other are of obstructing that animal fluid, to the proper circulation of which we owe our health and vigour. I was led into this reflection by catching myfelf in a folly which I fhall not be much afhamed of confeffing, fince, on contemplating fome paffages my observation fupplies me with, I find the foible inherent, in a more or lefs degree, in the whole fpecies of human kind, though few are ingenuous enough to acknowledge it. I was fitting yesterday in my parlour-window, looking carelefly on the people as they paffed, when, all at once, a fellow abruptly prefented himself before me, and cried, in a hoarfe voice, Spectacles, Madam, fine Spectacles; and at the fame time, thrust a pair of those nofe-faddles within the fafh. You cannot imagine, dear Lucy, how I was shocked: I gave the man a fhort anfwer, and immediately drew down the window." Good "God!" faid I to myfelf," do I look old enough "to be fuppofed to want fpectacles?" not confidering that it was the fellow's trade to offer them to every body, and that many people younger than myfelf, were obliged to make use of them.-I ran, however, to my glafs, and fancied I perceived what they call the crow's feet appearing at the corners of my eyes.-I looked, and looked again, and the more I did fo, the more I thought these cruel marks of Time were vifible; and now recollecting that my laft birth-day brought me into my oneand-thirtieth year, and that a very few more of them would rank me among the number of the aged, I fell into fuch a fit of the vapours as I had never before known. Is not this unaccountable? Where now was my understanding ?-where my reafon? The little fharǝ I have is fufficient to make me know, that whoever lives a great while in this. world muft grow old, and few of us there are who defire to die yoong. Why was not this knowledge at hand to make me eafy under the common course of Nature? I do affure you I had grown two or three hours older before I could bring myself to be reconciled with the apprehenfions that every moment brought me nearer to that fo-much-dreaded ftage of life; but, thank Heaven, I got the better of it at last, and laughed at the foolish part my imagination had been acting. That we all, however, have a natural averfion to gray hairs, and wrinkles cannot be denied; and that to overcome the uneafinefs their approach inAlicts requires the utmost exertion of our reafon ; yet is not this an inconfiftency, a kind of abfurdity in our habit of thinking?-We ridicule a thoufand leffer follies of mankind, yet pafs over that which more than all deferves cenfure, the being afhamed or afraid of attaining what all the world, as well as ourselves, would wish to arrive at But we would live for ever if we could, and yet be always young; we would annihilate the depredations of Time from fifteen to fixty: and even then not be content, perhaps, to be thought in our decline. Were old age terrible to us merely as it is the forerunner of death, or as it is generally attended with infirmities which render life a burden, I fhould not be fo much furprised; but, alas! we fee death and diseases feize on youth and ftrength; no time of life is a fecurity against either.-Nor is it altogether the apprehenfion of being deprived of what share of beauty Nature may have bestowed upon us that renders it fo alarming, fince that alfo may be loft by the fmallpox, and a thousand other accidents. No, it is only the name, not the effects we fo much dread; and I believe most people would rather chufe deformity with youth than comelinefs with old age. This, and fome other propenfities of the mind, in my opinion, are fufficient to convince any thinking perfon of the importance of human underftanding, and oblige us all to own, with the poet, that Reafon in man is a twinkling lamp Of wand'ring life, that wakes and winks by turns ; You will imagine, by my being fo ferious, that I have not yet got over the fright the man put me into, and indeed, I am not fure whether I have or not; but, be that as it will, I have refolution enough to wifh, from the very bottom of my heart, that you and I may grow old in friendhip, and that, whatever effect time may have upon our perfons, our minds may remain as now united; which will be a balance against the mortifications in the power of the old gentleman with the hourglass, to, My dear Lucy, Your's, with the most perfect amity, LETTER XVIII. To a lady who had loft her beauty by the smallpox. My dear Ophelia, I RECEIVED your's, and rejoice too much on your recovery to be able to condole with you on any alteration your late illness has made in you; and, indeed, how great foever it may be, am far from thinking it deferves to be mentioned with that concern you exprefs. You have encountered Death, and foiled him at one of his fharpeft weapons; and, if you have received fome fcars, ought to look upon them rather as trophies of victory 1 than blemishes.What if your complexion has loft fome parts of its fair enamel, and your features are not altogether fo delicate? the lefs charms your glafs prefents you with, the more you will find in your closet; and, deprived of vain pleasure in contemplating the graces of your outward form, you will have the greater leisure to improve and embellish those which are not fo eafily impaired. Let us pretend what we will, it is the ambition of attracting admirers that renders beauty of fo much value to all the young and gay; but, if we confider seriously, we fhall find that it is virtue, good fense, sweetness of difpofition, and complaifance, of which the girdle of Citherea fhould be: compofed.-The finest face in the world, without them, will not long maintain its empire over the heart of a man of understanding, as the poet truly fays, Beauty foon grows familiar to the eye; Do not think, however, that I am glad to find you are more on a level, than before this accident, with the greatest part of our fex. I confefs, the beauties of the perfon greatly contribute to fet off and render thofe of the mind confpicuous, and, for that reason, fhould lament extremely any defect in the one, if I were not certain you had enough of the other to engrofs the whole attention of as many as know you; and that they may every day increase in the luftre of true dignity is the fincere wish of, My dear Ophelia, Your's SOPARONIA. |