IN SEARCH OF A HUSBAND:

BY A MODERN ANTIQUE.

"There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature, who not prune
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason,

and from thence

Magnanimous, to correspond with Heaven,

But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends,"

IN TWO VOLUMES.

THIRD EDITION.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED AT THE

Minerba-Prels,

FOR A. K. NEWMAN AND CO

(Successors to Lane, Newman, and Co.)

LEADENHALL-STREET,

1809.

PREFACE.

THE title-page prefixed to this book bears a strong appearance of presumption; and the reader of these pages may, in the conclusion, pronounce the author both vain and futile. The only apology she has to offer may probably lead her yet deeper into error; yet she cannot resist saying something of herself, or rather of her motives.

Colebs had appeared-it would be answered; but it must be answered directly→→ a long life, even blessed with superior talents, would scarcely produce a work, whose intrinsic worth could class it with that performance.

The

The reader very naturally asks, why answer it at all? There are many reasons which induce persons to write. Doctor Johnson has said of this species of writing, "that it requires that experience which can never be attained by solitary diligence, but must arise from general converse, and accurate observation of the living world."

I believe it possible to glean a little worldly knowledge, without mixing in its haunts; and were such advantages indispensible in a writer,

"How many would starve, who now are fed !"

Extend your compassion towards this unfortunate class, courteous reader-consider, that what is "sport to you, is death to us."

It has, with much justice, been said, that "to tell the public you have written a book