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form of the object. Our sportsinen know, that the generous courser cannot be bred out of the foundered jade, nor the sagacious spaniel out of the snarling cur. This is settled upon

immutable laws. The man who marries a woman of a sickly constitution, and descended of unhealthy parents, whatever his views may be, cannot be said to act a prudent part. A diseased woman may prove fertile; should this be the case, the family must become an infirmary: what prospect of happiness the father of such a family has, we shall leave any one to judge.*"

"Great beauty," says a celebrated philo sopher,† "should rather be avoided than sought

The Jews, by their laws, were, in certain cases, forbidden to have any manner of commerce with the diseased; and in. deed to this, all wise legislators ought to have a special regard. In some countries, diseased persons have actually been forbid to marry. This is an evil of a complicated kind, a natural deformity, and political mischief; and therefore requires a public consideration.

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sought in marriage. Beauty soon grows familiar by possession; at the end of six weeks it is no longer any thing to the possessor; but its dangers last as long as it lasts itself: unless a handsome woman is an angel, her husband is the unhappiest of mankind.

"Desire a medium in all things, without excepting even beauty. An agreeable and engaging figure, which does not inspire love, but benevolence, is what we ought to prefer; it is without prejudice to the husband, and its advantage turns to the common profit. The graces are not lost like beauty, but are incessantly renewed; and after being married thirty years, an agreeable honest. woman pleases her husband as well as the first day."

Thus far have we investigated the recommendations of person, which notwithstanding

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the many arts of invention to improve, may yet be considered as the immediate object of sight and conviction; but safely to determine on the acquirements of the mind, to call forth the beauties or the deformities of that retreat, will demand, it may be urged, a greater latitude of time for the purposes of discrimination and experience. Charms there are in person, and irresistible ones too, but unless adorned with the unfading beauties of the mind, they partake more of the fever of desire, than the chastity of love.

The qualities of mind which best recommend themselves to the sexes, depend on the diversified circumstances of habits of life, difference of education, and formation of taste and after all, the most ill-conditioned temper, from the higher to the lower ranks of society, may be disciplined for their respective delusions, and artfully discharge the pleasing duties of courtship.

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The accommodating thought-the persuasive sentiment the speaking eye-the modest retirement-the fascinating smile-the impressive adieu! these alone are sufficient to put into action all the nerves of sensibility, and leave on the palpitating heart the surest tokens of eventual triumph!

If the common patience of human nature can wait in good humour for these pantomimical scenes, the allotment of human life will not afford the time. A year, perhaps two or more of irrecoverable time, out of man's small pittance, sunk for ever! and for what? to accomplish that, which without dissimulation and intrigue, might more happily be brought about in as many weeks. A miser would not thus abuse his gold!

A better plan of ascertaining the real qualities of the mind, especially those more impor

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tant considerations of suavity of disposition and integrity of principle, would be, cautiously to apply to the actual knowledge of others for that valuable information.

Courtship and Wedlock have two distinct addresses, and the ceremony and fondness usually attached to the former, give no small occasion of remonstrance when they begin to abate in the latter. But in the selection of a partner, literary acquirements, so great a treasure in the estimation of many, are not subject to this mutability; like a perennial stream they continue the same: but whether these attainments shall flow with their usual smoothness, or be agitated into a rougher current, must depend on the feelings of the possessor.

To a learned wife however, there are not a few, who have insuperable objections: Ju

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