difpofed, and plump into the bargain, I acknowledge that I do not precifely entertain that fentiment for him.

I will not condemn thofe women, who, having no warmer fentiment for any other, confent to marry men, for whom they have a complete indifference, from views of wealth, grandeur, or from compliance with the requeft of their relations; but I cannot envy them their prudence nor complaifance. I was bleft with parents who never would have urged me on fuch a fubject: but, had it been otherwife, I am convinced I fhould have displayed a degree of refiftance to their inclination which I never showed on any other occafion.

On this principle I acted, when, pretty early in life, I refused the hand of a young man of immenfe wealth, abroad; and, lately, when, with lefs hesitation, I rejected the propofals of lord Deanport. I never, for a moment, repented my determination, and, I am fully fatisfied, never fhall. Yet I imagine

that I have a due regard for wealth, and that I put a proper value on the comforts and conveniences it puts in our power. From such obfervations as I have been able to make, I am led to believe, that few things are fo much over-valued, in this country particularly, as riches.

For my part, I am certain that I should feel more lasting mortification and pain from being put to the blush by one instance of ignorance, dulness, want of spirit, or of generosity, in my husband, than I could receive pleasure from his poffeffing the wealth of ten nabobs, and living in all the magnificence of the Eaft.-Good Heaven! how many perfonages do we fee yawning through life in magnificence! I have a notion that I know a greater number of very opulent people, particularly of our fex, who pass their lives with lefs enjoyment, and more fretting, than any clafs, except, perhaps, those who are in want of the common conveniences of life.

The fate of poor Fanny Faukener, with whom I was intimately acquainted at Laufanne, made a ftrong impreffion on my

mind.

I have known few young women of more amiable dispositions, more accomplished, or more capable of rendering a man of sense and sentiment happy, and of being rendered happy by him.

Her greatest weakness lay in her having too little reliance in her own judgment, and being too pliant to the importunities of others. She was perfuaded, by her relations, to marry Mr. Buckram, a young man who, by the death of an elder brother, had, acquired an immenfe fortune. Her relations affured her, "that he was the best young man in the world ;" and when fhe confeffed to them, that, in fpite of his good qualities, it was impoffible for her to meet with a man for whom she could feel more indifference, she was told, that was an objection of no importance, because she might

come to like him more, but would never like him lefs, which was an advantage mary married women did not enjoy. She might, perhaps, have taken a fmall bias in his favour, from the reflection that he had given a preference to her over the prodigious number of young ladies in London, whom he might have had for the afking; but one of her good-natured friends informed her in confidence, a little after her marriage, that Mr. Buckram had never once thought of paying his addreffes to her until he was defired to do fo by his grandmother.

Yet, although Mr. Buckram had never paid mifs Faukener any particular attention before, he thought it his duty to fall in love with her as foon as his grandmother fignified her inclination that he fhould do fo; and, from the fame fenfe of duty and decorum, he was very attentive to her after she became his wife.

Mr. Buckram was a great obferver of decorum and uniformity, and particularly fond

of whatever was new. As he had taken a wife, which was quite a new thing to him, to please his grandmother, he refolved to have other parts of his establishment as new as her, to please himself.

He therefore took a new houfe, ordered new furniture, new carriages, new liveries; caufed his old pictures, particularly a Holy Family by Raphael, to be new varnished; and he exchanged an antique ftatue, which his father had brought from Rome, for one a great deal newer. He rejected the propofal of haying fome old family-jewels to be new fet for his wife, and ordered others for her, all fpick and fpan new-in fhort, every thing he prefented her with was new, except his ideas of these he had but a scanty portion; and, what few he had, were worn' threadbare by ufe.

The frequent repetition of obfervations, not worth making, was rather tiresome to the moft patient of his acquaintance, but to his wife became oppreffive. As Mr. Buckram