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most care and exactnefs, by way of tuning the feveral inftruments, in order to their producing that harmony and delight which is always to be expected from a good concert; but, on the contrary, fhould this precaution be at any time neglected, the whole operation to an intelligent ear, muft confequently found lit tle less frightful than the hideous, difcordant yell of cats and dogs.

Matrimonial happinefs then, on the part of the women at least, may, I think, be very justly confidered as the propereft touchstone to try the intrinfick excellence of this my fpecifick; I fay, particularly on the part of the women, because the purest gold may fometimes be, as I am afraid it too often is, fhamefully adulterated by the mixture of bafer metal, and its properties, during fuch an heterogeneous conjunction, may evidently appear so far injured, as to render it, upon trial, greatly inadequate to the true standard; it must be confeffed, indeed, that the discipline of the crucible can perfectly restore all its native beauty and value again, but this generally proves a difagreeable experiment, and therefore the use of my cofmetick, if early and judiciously applied, may, in a great measure, prevent all the trouble and difficulty of such a process.

In fhort, to drop the allufion here, that fyftem of female education, which impreffes the principles of virtue deeply on the heart, by convincing the understanding, at the fame time both of their neceffity and utility, bids certainly the fairest for obtaining fuch a prize, in what however is too unjustly called the lottery of wedlock, as is most likely to infure the happiness abovementioned: but even this rule, fuccefsful as it may prove in general, cannot always be depended upon as infallible; fince it is fcarcely poffible for us to be thoroughly affured, otherwife than perhaps by woeful experience, that the virtue of the men, I mean the rectitude of their conduct in quality of hufbands, is not altogether, as it ought to be, in exact proportion to the goodness of their understanding the uncertainty in this cafe, it must be allowed, is sometimes the cause of much infelicity to women of the greatest merit, in their choice of partners for life; and fuch indeed it proved in an extraordinary degree to the deferving Portia, whofe ftory I entered upon in the last chapter; but then it must likewife be allowed, that had this not been the cafe, her virtues, which, I believe, were as numerous and fhining as ever yet adorned the female breast, could not howB 2

ever

Mary Beanley her March 28 1764.

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