Every one has his peculiar humours, maggots, and fancies; and every one has his faults more or less, which, in the matrimonial state especially, we ought to wink upon. Now, it frequently happens, that the good understanding and friendship which ought to be preserved between a man and his wife, is fatally interrupted before they have acquired a tolerable knowledge of each other. And this is the first thing which ought || to be guarded against; for when once the spirit of dissension has disunited them, it is a very dif ficult matter to make a reconciliation, particularly if it ever went so far as personal vio1ences. We see that pieces of wood which are glued together, if they are roughly used at first are easily broken asunder; but if you give them time to settle, and the cement is thoroughly dried, there is no danger of their breaking. For this reason all possible care should be taken that, in the infancy of marriage, a good correspondence be settled between both parties, and take deep root. This is chiefly effected by a mutual complaisance, and easiness of disposition; for love, that has nothing but beauty to keep it in health, is short-lived, and liable to frequent ague-fits.

C. Pray then, oblige me so far as to inform me by what arts you made your husband tractable.

ourselves in our husbands' good graces, with whom, whether we will or no, we must live all our lives, at bed and board, till death comes to our relief?

C. I am all attentive, pray proceed.

H. When, after diligent examination, I had discovered his humour, I accommodated mine to his, and took care that nothing should offend him.

C. I wonder how!

H. In every thing relative to the family, which is the peculiar province of women, I showed my utmost dexterity and management; for I not only took care that nothing should be omit.ed or left undone, but also that every thing should be suitable to his temper, even in mere trifles. For instance, if my husband fancied a particular dish of meat, and would have it dressed after such a manner; if he would have so many blankets on the bed, such furniture in a room, a door or window open or shut, it was all done to his liking.

C. But how could you humour a man who is never at home, but perpetually sotting at the tavern?

H. Hold; I am coming to that point. If at any time I saw my husband out of humour, and melancholy, and not caring to be talked to, I would not for the world laugh nor put on a gay

H. With all my heart, that you may imitate humour, but I would keep a grave demure counthem.

C. So I will, if practicable.

H. Oh! nothing more easy, if you will in earnest apply to it. And, for your comfort, 'tis never too late to put them in practice. I will tell you then, upon condition you keep it to yourself.

C. Never question that; I can be silent as well as another upon occasion.

H. My first and chief care was to please my good man in every respect; and that nothing might give him offence or disgust, I diligently marked his inclination and temper; what were his easiest moments, what things pleased him, and what he disliked; and this, with as much application as those people do who tame elephants, lions, tygers, and other animals, that cannot be mastered by mere strength.

C. Such sort of an animal I have at home. H. Keepers of elephants wear no white clothes, and those who manage bulls forbear the use of red clothes, because they find by experience that these colours are disagreeable to those creatures. Thus we see that the beating of a drum will set a tyger raging mad, so that he will tear his own flesh; and thus jockies have particular sounds, whistles, and strokes, to flatter their horses when refractory. How much the more then does it concern us to use all imaginable means to fix No. VI. Vol. I.

tenance as well as he; for, as a true looking-glass faithfully represents the face which looks in it, so a wife ought to fashion herself to the affection of her husband; not be chearful when he is sad, nor sorrowful when he is merry. Now, whenever I found him cross indeed, I either tried to soothe him with fair words, or else held my tongue and waited patiently till this ill-humour had spent itself, and then I took my opportunity to clear all mistakes and pacify him. The same method I constantly observed when he came home tipsy; at such time I gave him all the indulgent and tender language I could think of, and by these means got him quietly to bed.

C. A blessed life this, that we poor wives are forced to lead, if we must thus humour our husbands in every thing that comes into their noddles when drunk or angry!

H. You don't consider that this duty is reciprocal, and that they are obliged to bear the same from us. However, there is a critical time when a wife may take upon her to advise her husband in matters of importance; for I think it much better to wink at small faults.

C. And how is she to know the proper time? H. Why, when his mind is serene, and nothing disturbs him; when he is cool and sober; then you may admonish, or rather intreat him; and this always in private, as to any thing

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wherein his estate, his health, or his reputation || country. He was resolved to have a raw inex

are concerned. And this very advice is to be seasoned with some pleasantries, that it may look as if it were not designed, but purely accidental. Sometimes, by way of preface, I agree with him before hand that he shall not be angry, "if, being a foolish woman, I venture to interpose my own counsel in any thing wherein his honour, health, or preservation are at stake." After I have said as much as I think proper at that time, I turn the discourse to some more agreeable and entertaining subject; for, under the rose be it spoken, this is the fault of us women, that when we have once tuned our pipes, we do not know when to leave off.

C. So it is commonly said indeed.

H. This I always observed as a rule, never to chide my husband before company, nor to prattle abroad of dissensions at home. What passes between two persons is much sooner made up than when once it has taken air; now if ever matters.come to such a pass that the husband is incurable, I think it by much the most prudent course for the wife to carry her complaints to his parents or relations, rather than to her own friends, and mereover to manage her remonstrances with such discretion that, they may see she hates only the vices, but not the person of her husband. Neither would I have her blab out all she knows, that even here he may be obliged, in spite of himself to acknowledge and admire her kindness to him.

C. A woman must indeed be a philosopher to be able to practise so much self-denial.

H. I am of a different opinion, for by this deportment we prevail upon our husbands to return the kindness.

C. But still there are brutes in the world whom all the good usage imaginable will never mend.

H. I can hardly believe it; but put the case there are; we are to remember that, let our husbands prove what they will, when once we have chosen them we must bear with their humours; and I appeal to yourself whether it is not infinitely better to soften him by a courteous temper, or at least patiently to bear with his failings, than by incessantly scolding and railing at him, to exasperate and make him ten times worse. I could instance some wives who by their like attentions have altered their spouses much for the better.

Her

perienced maid, that he might have the pleasure of moulding her according to his own fancy. So he began to give her some insight into books, to teach her music, and to use her by degrees to repeat the parson's text and the heads of his sermon, together with several other things which he thought would be of some use and advantage to her. Now this being wholly new to the girl, who, as I before mentioned, had been bred at home with all tenderness and delicacy, amidst the submissions and flatteries of the servants, she scon grew weary of this life. She absolutely refused to learn any more, and when her bus. band pressed her about it, she would cry and roar as if she were going to be sacrificed. Sometimes she would throw herself flat on the ground, beat her head against the floor, and wish that death would come to end her affliction. husband finding no end to this, concealed his resentment, and invited her to go with him to pay a visit to her father in the country. The young lady liked this motion well enough, so, when they came to the place, the gentleman leaves his wife with her mother and sister, and takes a ride with his father-in-law. When he had him alone, he took his opportunity to tell him, that whereas he was in good hopes to have found an agreeable companion in his daughter, || on the contrary she was always sobbing, crying, and fretting without reason; that this unac countable habit had taken such deep root in her, that he feared she was incurable; however, he conjured him to lend him his helping hand, to see if they could between them bring her to a better temper. The father-in-law answered, that he had put his daughter into his power, and if she did not behave herself as she ought, he was at liberty to use his own authority, and to tame her into due submission.-"I know my own power well enough," replies the other, "but I had rather my wife should be reasoned into her duty by you, than that we should come to such extremities." At last the old gentleman promised to use all his skill to reduce her; so, after a day or two, he takes a proper time and place to discourse in private with his daughter; and looking somewhat austerely on her, he began by reminding her how indifferent she was as to her beauty, how disagreeable in her disposition, so that he had often feared he should never be able to get a husband for her." But, after a long enquiry,

C. If so, these men differ more from my vir- and much diligence," said he, "I had the good tuous husband than black from white.

H. I am acquainted with a gentleman of good family, well read, learned, and a person of great address and good conduct. He married a young lady, seventeen years of age, who had been wholly educated in her father's house in the

luck to find out one for you that the best lady in the land might have been glad of! and yet you, (continued he) like an insensible stupid creature as you are, neither considering what I your father have done for you, nor reflecting that your husband, unless he was one of the best-natured

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THE GOLDEN MIRROR;

OR,

THE KINGS OF SHESHIAN:

A TRUE HISTORY, TRANSLATED FROM THE SHESHIANESE.

[Continued from Page 244.]

t Paris.

Besides, Shah Dolka was steemed the best baker of cakes in his time, if his courtiers have not flattered him in this particular; and it is handed down to us as a singular proof of his rare condescension, that he made it an inviolable rule, on all grand festivals, to entertain his whole court with a kind of fritters of his own invention and

PROBABLY it was from this mortal aversion to scription of the Royal Cabinet of Natural History the stories of the Vizir Moslem that may be explained the extraordinary dislike he had to philosophy, and in general to books, whether written on parchment or palm-leaves; a dislike that led him so far, that it was only with extreme difficulty he could be restrained from banishing, not only with Plato, all poets, but even all persons who could read and write, from his republic; even the mathematicians and star-cookery. Never was a sultan known to be su gazers not excepted, to whom he bore a great antipathy on account of the arometrical and astronomical discoveries of King Ostrich. It is reported of him, that the vizir, of whom we have made honourable mention, had related the history of the war between the genius Greener than Grass and the Kings of the Green Country, in his presence; that the young prince, who was then scarcely sixteen years of age, at the passage where the perriwig-block gains a complete 'vic-nial; and therefore, from morning to night, (intory over King Ostrich, could not refrain from calling out: "That nobody shall ever make me believe, that ever a perriwig-block should have the capacity to command an army!"-A remark, which (as we may well imagine) was eagerly taken up by all present, and with due admiration reached through the whole court, as the indication of an uncommon intellect in a prince at so early an age.

overloaded with business as poor Dolka was during the whole course of his reign. For, as all the kings and princes, from the rising to the setting sun, were desirous of having some mice of his workmanship in their museuins, or a finch from his school in their ante-chamber. Shah Dolka, partly from civility, partly from the consideration of the whim ical thing which is termed ratio status, would never give a blunt de

cluding the hours he was obliged to lose in the divan), he had actually so much business that he had scarcely time to breathe.

Heaven knows whether any other nation was ever so fortunate as to be blessed with four such princes in immediate succession as Shah RiarShah Lolo, Shah Baham, and Shah Doika What excellent sovereigns! what golden times! exclaimed their omrahs and dervises.

But these sovereigns could not expect that every thing should always proceed to their mind. Shah Gebal, a nephew of Baham the wise (as his panegyrists styled him), who succeeded his uncle in default of a lineal heir, for Doika,

We cannot forbear making the remark, that an inclination to employment and continued industry is one of the most rare and estimable virtues that a great sovereign can possess. On this

Shah Dolka justified the high expectations that had been raised from such a shining instance .of his future great qualities. Envy itself must confess that he was an honour to his ancestors. He was the greatest man of his time in cooking greenfinches; and in the art of cutting mice out of apple-pips, the world to this very day has never beheld his equal. By unremitting industry he arrived at such excellence in this noble art, that he could make to perfection all kinds of mice, as the dormouse, the field-mouse, the house-account alone, in our opinion, Shah Dolka demouse, the rare-mouse, the flitter-mouse, the water-mouse, the shrew-mouse, the marmotte, the bat, the rat, with all their several characteristics; and, if we may give credit to the famous Sheik Hamet ben Fridun Abu Hassan, he observed the very nicest proportions, according to the latest standard which M. Daubenton has taken the laudable pains to lay down in his de

serves a place among the best princes that ever adorned a throne. How great would have been his merit if he had been pleased to employ this indefatigable diligence in the exercise of his royal duties !-His royal duties!-And towards whom? Shah Dolka had no notion that a king could have any duties.

Remarks of the Chinese translator,