or senate of Rome. Every one admires the orator and the consul; but, for my own part, I esteem the busband and the father. His private character, with all the little weaknesses of humanity, is as amiable as the figure he makes in public his awful and majestic. It would be ill-nature not to acquaint the English reader, that his wife was successful in her solicitatious for this great man, and saw her husband return to the honours of which he had been deprived, with all the pomp and acclamation that usually attended the greatest triumph. From the foregoing examples, it appears incontestibly evident, that a happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and, indeed, all the swcets of life : and to make it so, nothing more is required than discretion, virtue, and good-nature. But, for want of these, wedlock is now become the standing jest of fools, the curse of knaves, and the plague of most men. Where these are happily united, we may say with the poet, They know a passion still more deeply charming THE CHARACTER OF A GOOD HUSBAND. THE good husband is one, who, wedded not by interest but by choice, is constant as well from inclination as from principle: he treats his wife with delicacy as a woman, with tenderness as a friend: he attributes her follies to her weakness, her imprudence to her inadvertency. : he passes them over therefore with good-nature, and pardons them with indulgence: all his care and industry are employed for her welfare; all his strength and power are exerted for her support and protection: he is more anxious to preserve his own character and reputation, because her's is blended with it : lastly, the good husband is pious and religious, that he may animate her faith by his practice, and enforce the precepts of Christianity by his own example: that as they join to promote each other's happiness in this world, they may unite to insure eternal joy and felicity in that which is to come. THE CHARACTER OF A GOOD WIFE. THE good wife is one, who, ever mindful of the solemn contract which she hath entered into, is strictly and conscientiously virtuous, const nt, and faithful to her husband chaste, pure, and unblemished, in every thought, word, and deed: she is humble and modest from reason and conviction, submissive from choice, and obedient from inclination: what she acquires by love and tenderness, she preserves by prudence and discretion: she makes it her business to serve, and her pleasure to oblige her husband; conscious that every thing that promotes his happiness, must in the end, contribute to her own: her tenderness relieves his cares, her affection softens his distress, her good humour and complacency, lessen and subdue his afflictions. "She openeth her mouth," as Solomon says, "with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the way of her husband, and eateth not the bread of idleness: her children rise up and call her blessed : her husband also, and he praiseth her." As a good and pious Christian, she looks up with an eye of gratitude to the great dispenser and disposer of all things, to the busband of the widow and father of the fatherless, entreating his divine favour and assistance in this and every other moral and religious duty; well satisfied, that if she duly and punctually discharges her several offices in this life, she shall be blessed and rewarded for it in another. "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” : AFFECTION PARENTAL. SENTIMENTS. AS the vexations which parents receive from their children hasten the approach of age, and double the force of years, so the comforts which they reap from them, are balm to all other sorrows, and disappoint the injuries of time. Parents repeat their lives in their offsprings; and their concern for them is so near, that they feel all their sufferings, and taste all their enjoyments, as much as if they regarded their own persons. However strong we may suppose the fondness of a father for his children, yet they will find more lively marks of tenderness in the bosom of a mother.-There are no ties in nature to compare with those which unite an affectionate mother to her children, when they repay her tenderness with obedience and love. EXAMPLES. How ZALEUCUS, prince of the Locrines, made a decree, that whoever was convicted of adultery should be punished with the loss of both his eyes. Soon after this establishment, the legislator's own son was apprehended in the very fact, and brought to a public trial. could the father acquit himself in so tender and delicate a conjuncture? Should he execute the law in all its rigour, this would be worse than death to the unhappy youth: should he pardon so notorious a delinquent, this would defeat the design of his salutary institution. To avoid both these inconveniences, he ordered one of his own eyes to be pulled out, and one of his son's. ELIAN. Lib. 13. SOLON inquiring of Thales, the Milesian philosopher, Why, considering the happy situation of his affairs, he had neither wife nor children? Thales, for the present, made him no answer. A few days after he introduced a stranger, properly instructed, who said, that he came : : ten days ago from Athens. Solon immediately asked him what news he brought from thence I know of nothing extraordinary, replied he, except that the whole city celebrated the funeral of a young man, the son of a citizen, most eminent for his virtues, who, it seems, went abroad upon his travels. Miserable man! cried Solon but did not you hear his name? I did, returned the stranger, but I have forgot it; this I remember, that he was particularly famous for his wisdom and his justice. Was it Solon? said our philosopher : it was, answered the stranger. Upon this, our legislator began to beat his head, to weep, and to discover all the symptoms of the deepest sorrow. But Thales interposing, with a smile, addressed him thus, These, O Solon, are the things which make me afraid of marriage and children, since these are capable of affecting even so wise a man as you; be not, however, concerned, for this is all a fiction." Whether on this occasion, or on the real loss of a son, is uncertain, Solon being desired by a person not to weep, since weeping would avail nothing; he answered with much humanity and good sense, And for this cause I weep. UNIV. HIST. AGESILAUS, king of Sparta, was of all mankind one of the most tender and indulgent fathers to his children. It is reported of him, that when they were little he would play with them, and divert himself and them with riding upon a stick; and that having been surprised by a friend in that action, he desired him not to tell any body of it till he himself was a father. ROLLIN'S ANT. HIST. CAMBALUS, a young gentleman of character and fortune, in the city of Mulgeatum, being one day out a coursing, was way-laid, and very near being robbed and murdered by the banditti who infested that part of the country. Gorgus, the young gentleman's father, happened to come by at the very instant, to whom Cambalus related the danger he was in. The son was on foot, the father on horseback; but no sooner had he heard the melancholy tale, than he leapt from bis horse, way desired the son to mount, and make the best of his into the city but Cambalus, preferring his father's safety to his own, would by no means consent to it; on the contrary, conjured his father to leave him, and take care of himself. The father, struck with the generosity and affection of his son, added tears to entreaties, but all to no purpose. The contest between them is better conceived than described-while bathed in tears, and beseeching each other to preserve his own life, the banditti approached and stabbed them both. DrON. SIC. Lib. 34. CORNELIA,* the illustrious mother of the Gracchi, after the death of her husband, who left her twelve children, applied herself to the care of her family, with a wisdom and prudence that acquired her universal esteem. Only three out of the twelve lived to years of maturity; one daughter, Sempronia, whom she married to the second Scipio Africanus; and two sons, Tiberius and Caius, whom she brought up with so much care, that, though they were generally acknowledged to have been born with the most happy geniuses and dispositions, it was judged that they were still more indebted to education than nature. The answer she gave a Campanian lady concerning them is very famous, and includes in it great instructions for ladies and mothers. That lady, who was very rich, and still fonder of pomp and show, after having displayed in a visit she made her, her diamonds, pearls, and richest jewels, earnestly desired Cornelia to let her see her jewels also. Cornelia dexterously turned the conversation to another subject, to wait the return of her sons, who were gone to the public schools. When they returned, and entered their mother's apartment, she said to the Campanian lady, pointing to them with her hand, These are my jewels, and the only ornaments I admire. And such or * Legimus epistolas Cornelia matris Gracchorum, apparet filios non tam in Gremio educatos quam in Sermone matris. CIC. in BRUT. 2. 11. |