refused good offers, and are never likely to receive any for the future.

The only advice, therefore, I could give the fair fex, as things ftand at prefent, is to get hufbands as faft as they can. There is certainly nothing in the whole creation, not even Babylon in ruins, more truly deplorable than a lady in the virgin bloom of fixty-three, nor a battered unmarried beau, who fquibs about from place to place, fhewing his pigtail wig and his ears. The one appears to my imagination in the form of a double night-cap, or a roll of pomatum, the other in the fhape of an electuary, or a box of pills.

I would once more therefore advise the ladies to get husbands. I would defire them not to discard an old lover without very fufficient reafons, nor treat the new with ill-nature till they know him falfe; let not prudes allege the falfenefs of the sex, coquets the pleafures of long courtship, or parents the neceffary preliminaries of penny for penny. I have reafons that would filence even a cafuift in this particular. In the first place, therefore, I divide the fubject into fifteen heads, and then fic argumentorbut not to give you and myself the fpleen, be contented at prefent with an Indian tale.

In a winding of the river Amidar, juft before it falls into the Cafpian fea, there lies an ifland unfrequented by the inhabitants of the Continent. In this feclufion, bleft with all that wild uncultivated Nature could beftow, lived a princefs and her two daughters. She had been wrecked upon the coaft while her children as yet were infants, who of confequence, though grown up, were entirely unacquainted with man. Yet, unexperienced as the young ladies were in the oppofite fex, both early difcovered fymptoms, the one of prudery, the other of being a coquet. The eldeft was ever learning

maxims of wisdom and difcretion from her mamma, while the youngest employed all her hours in gazing at her own face in a neighbouring fountain.

Their ufual amufement in this folitude was fishing their mother had taught them all the fecrets of the art; fhe fhewed them which were the most likely places to throw out the line, what baits were most proper for the various feasons, and the best manner to draw up the finny prey, when they had hooked it. In this manner they spent their time, eafy and innocent, till one day, the Princefs being indifpofed, defired them to go and catch her a fturgeon or a fhark for fupper, which fhe fancied might fit easy on her ftomach. The daughters obeyed, and clapping on a gold fifh, the ufual bait on thofe occafions, went and fat upon one of the rocks, letting the gilded hook glide down with the ftream.

On the oppofite shore, farther down, at the mouth of the river, lived a diver for pearls; a youth, who, by long habit in his trade, was almoft grown amphibious; fo that he could remain whole hours at the bottom of the water, without ever fetching breath. He happened to be at that very inftant diving when the ladies were fishing with the gilded hook. Seeing therefore the bait, which to him had the appearance of real gold, he was refolved to feize the prize, but both his hands being already filled with pearl oyfters, he found himfelf obliged to fnap at it with his mouth: the confequence is eafily imagined; the hook, before unperceived, was inftantly faftened in his jaw, nor could he, with all his efforts, or his floundering, get free.

"Sifter," cries the youngest Princess, "I have certainly caught a monftrous fifh; I never per"ceived any thing ftruggle fo at the end of my line. "before; come, and help me to draw it in." They

both

both now therefore affifted in fishing up the diver on fhore; but nothing could equal their furprize upon feeing him. "Blefs my eyes," cries the

prude, "what have we got here; this is a very odd

fifh to be fure; I never faw any thing in my life "look fo queer; what eyes, what terrible claws, "what a monftrous fnout; I have read of this mon❝fter fomewhere before, it certainly must be a Tan"lang that eats women; let us throw it back into "the fea where we found it."

The diver in the mean time ftood upon the beach, at the end of the line, with the hook in his mouth, ufing every art that he thought could beft excite pity, and particularly looking extremely tender, which is ufual in fuch circumftances. The coquet therefore, in fome measure influenced by the innocence of his looks, ventured to contradict her companion. "Upon my word, fifter," fays fhe, 66 I

66

fee nothing in the animal fo very terrible as you are pleafed to apprehend; I think it may ferve "well enough for a change. Always fharks, and fturgeons, and lobfters, and crawfish make me 66 quite fick. I fancy a flice of this, nicely gril"laded, and dreffed up with fhrimp fauce, would "be very pretty eating. I fancy mamma would "like a bit with pickles above all things in the "world; and if it fhould not fit eafy on her fto"mach, it will be time enough to difcontinue it "when found difagreeable, you know." "Hor"rid," cries the prude, "would the girl be poi"foned; I tell you it is a Tanlang; I have read of it in twenty places. It is every where defcribed as the most pernicious animal that ever infefted "the ocean. I am certain it is the moft infidious, ravenous creature in the world; and is certain "deftruction if taken internally." The youngest

fifter was now therefore obliged to fubmit: both affifted in drawing the hook with fome violence from the diver's jaw; and he, finding himself at liberty, bent his breast against the broad wave and difappeared in an instant.

Juft at this juncture the mother came down to the beach, to know the caufe of her daughters delay; they told her every circumftance, defcribing the monfter they had caught. The old lady was one of the most difcreet women in the world; fhe was called the black-eyed Princefs, from two black eyes she had received in her youth, being a little addicted to boxing in her liquor. "Alas, my children," cries fhe, "what have you done? the fifh you "caught was a man-fifh; one of the moft tame "domeftic animals in the world. We could have "let him run and play about the garden, and he "would have been twenty times more entertaining "than our squirrel or monkey." "If that be all, fays the young coquet, "we will fifh for him again. If that be all, I'll hold three tooth-picks to one pound of fnuff, I catch him whenever I pleafe." Accordingly they threw in their line once more, but, with all their gilding, and padling, and affiduity, they could never after catch the diver. In this ftate of folitude and disappointment they continued for many years, ftill fishing, but without fuccefs; till, at laft, the genius of the place, in pity to their diftreffes, changed the prude into a Thrimp, and the coquet into an oyster. Adieu.

LETTER

LETTER LXXXVIII.

FROM THE SAME.

I AM amused, my dear Fum, with the labours of fome of the learned here. One fhall write you a whole folio on the diffection of a caterpillar. Another fhall fwell his works with a defcription of the plumage on the wing of a butterfly; a third fhall fee a little world on a peach leaf, and publish a book to defcribe what his readers might fee more clearly in two minutes, only by being furnished with eyes and a microscope.

I have frequently compared the understandings of fuch men to their own glaffes. Their field of vifion is too contracted to take in the whole of any but minute objects; they view all Nature bit by bit; now the probofcis, now the attennæ, now the pinnæ of a flea. Now the polypus comes to breakfast upon a worm; now it is kept up to fee how long it will live without eating; now it is turned infide outward; and now it fickens and dies. Thus they proceed, laborious in trifles, conftant in experiment, without one fingle abftraction, by which alone knowledge may be properly faid to increase ; till at laft their ideas, ever employed upon minute things, contract to the fize of the diminutive object, and a fingle mite fhall fill the whole mind's capacity.

Yet believe me, my friend, ridiculous as these men are to the world, they are fet up as objects of efteem for each other. They have particular places appointed for their meetings; in which one fhews his cockle-fhell, and is praised by all the fociety; another