Col. A very extraordinary topic, indeed, my lord, and the last I should have thought of. Lord L. Ay, you are a happy single man; but Sir Charles has been preaching to us married wretches. However, I'll be shot if you are not on my fide of the argument. Col. Don't be too fanguine, my lord-let me hear it first. Sir Ch. Why indeed I don't expect much from Careless, but I'll put the question notwithstanding. - Won't you allow, Colonel, that the two fexes ought to be upon a par after they are married, and that a woman has a right to be false to her husband, if he is not true to her. Col. Ay, faith, I think she has, and therefore don't intend to marry, Sir Charles, because I love variety; for I should think it very tyrannical to make my wife dine every day on boiled chicken, whilst I feasted on ragouts and fricaffies, ollios, turtles, and barbicued hogs. Sir Ch. Why truly, my friend, I believe your dishes are chiefly compounds, for which I who am a thorough admirer of fimplicity, have no relish. And this is your reason for not venturing upon a wife? Col. Ay, Sir Charles, and a very good reason in my humble opinion. - What say you, my lord? Lord Lord L. I am not a proper person to catechize, colonel. You may as well ask a man in the condemned hole, how he likes his irons. Sir Ch. Nay, my lord, matrimony cannot furely be to you so miferable a state, for you have just confessed that my lady gives you no uneafiness, and given very broad hints that you shouldn't mind her if she did. Lord L. Not I, faith - But what the devil, Charles, makes you so warm an advocate for marriage, and setting down tamely with one woman for life, and all that filly stuff? By gad I remember you quite another fort of a fellow. 1 Sir Ch. I was once, my lord, a giddy, unthinking creature, and ardently pursued what I then falsely called pleasure. - But I am sensible of my errors. - Reflection has opened my eyes, and I am endeavouring to make those who are engaged in the same pursuits see as clearly the ill consequences of them as I do. Lord L. But suppose they had rather be blind. And to deal freely with you, Charles, I shouldn't thank you for opening my eyes only to look at a hideous prospect, which I knew nothing of before. Sir Ch. No, my lord-But if I saw you on the the brink of a precipice, I should think it my duty, as a man, to make you sensible of your danger, and to lead you to a place of safety. Lord L. Ah, Charles! I am afraid I see the precipice but have not power to avoid it. Sir Ch. Nay then, my lord, you are much worse than I imagined: for he who knows he acts wrong, and yet persists in so doing, is ten times more blarneable than the man who is only guilty through ignorance. - But come, come, my lord, you will make use of your reason by and by; you are not so incorrigible as you would make me believe. The kind attention which you lend to my fermon (as you perhaps may call it) is a proof that you are capable of amendment. When a man can bear to hear reason against himself, I have always a good opinion of him. Lord L. I don't know how it is, Charles, but you have a very winning manner. Sir Ch. You please me, my lord, by telling me I have such a manner, but will give me more pleasure by taking my advice, because you will thereby convince me that you speak fincerely. Only try, my lord-I know it will hurt you a little at first-but who would not endure the pain of parting with a rotten tooth to get rid of it for ever. Lord Lord L. Egad, Charles, thou art so clever a reasoner, that let me die if I know how to refuse you any thing. Sir Ch. Since that is the case then, my lord, give us your company to-night. Lord L. Well, if it must be so, I agree.Are we not a couple of strange animals, colonel? Col. Faith, my lord, you will think me stranger than either of you, when I tell you that Charles has almost made me a convert to matrimony, and that I should be ready to enter into that state, if I could but find a fuitable companion for ever and for aye. Lord L. Well faid, Careless-do, be one of us, and curse me if I laugh at you. Sir Ch. The Colonel is not afraid of being laughed at, I dare fay, my lord; he only thinks he may not happen always to have an appetite for boiled chicken. Lord L. Very good, Charles, very good; give me your hand-boiled chicken-Ha, ha, ha. Col. No, s'death, 'tis not that neither; for I do verily believe, Sir Charles, that there are joys to be found in a domestic life fuperior to any other; and if I can meet with a woman to my tafte, who has a propensity to like me, (for that's the main point) I believe I shall give her Και my hand, heart and purse -- but don't tell every body what I fay. Sir Ch. No, no, we will keep your fecret most religiously-but come, my lord, it grows shall we be going? Colonel your late humble- Lord L. Adieu, Careless. ttttct -- NUMB. XIII. Saturday, June 5, 1756. Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll, Charms Strike the fight, but merit wins the foul. POPE. PASSING by my friend Aimnuell's houfe yesterday in the afternoon, I was taken notice of by his lively daughter, who fat near the parlour-window, and beckoned me in so particular a manner, that I concluded she had fome thing of importance to communicate, and there fore rapped at the door with the impatience of a letter-carrier. M On |