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

The only advice, therefore, I could give the fair sex, as things stand at present, is to get husbands as fast 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 sixty-three, nor a battered unmarried beau, whe squibs about from place to place, shewing 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 shape of an electuary, or a box of pills.

I would once more therefore advise the ladies to get husbands. I would desire them not to discard an old lover without very sufficient reasons, nor treat the new with ill-nature till they know him false; let not prudes alledge the falseness of the sex, coquets the pleasures of long courtship, or parents the necessary preliminaries of penny for penny. I have reasons that would silence even a casuist in this particular. In the first place, therefore, I divide the subject into fifteen heads, and then sic argumentor— but not to give you and myself the spleen, be conteated at present with an Indian tale.

In a winding of the river Amidar, just before it falls into the Caspian sea, there lies an island unfrequented by the inhabitants of the Continent. In this

clusion, blest with all that wild uncultivated Nasere could bestow, lived a princess and her two daughters. She had been wrecked upon the coast wale her children as yet were infants, who of consequence, though grown up, were entirely unac ented with man. Yet, unexperienced as the eng ladies were in the opposite sex, both early covered symptoms, the one of prudery, the other being a coquet. The eldest was ever learning

maxims

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

-to

Their usual amusement in this solitude was fishing their mother had taught them all the secrets of the art; she shewed them which were the most likely places to throw out the line, what baits were most proper for the various seasons, and the best manner to draw up the finny prey, when they had hooked it. In this manner they spent their time, easy and innocent, till one day, the Princess being indisposed, desired them to go and catch her a sturgeon or a shark for supper, which she fancied might sit easy on her stomach. The daughters obeyed, and clapping on a gold fish, the usual bait on those occasions, went and sat upon one of the rocks, letting the gilded hook glide down with the stream.

On the opposite shore, farther down, at the mouth of the river, lived a diver for pearls; a youth, who, by lang habit in his trade, was almost grown amphibious; so that he could remain whole hours at the bottom of the water, without ever fetching breath. He happened to be at that very instant 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 resolved to seize the prize, but both his hands being already filled with pearl oysters, he found himself obliged to snap at it with his mouth: the consequence is easily imagined; the hook, before unperceived, was instantly fastened in his jaw, nor could he, with all his efforts, or his floundering, get free.

"Sister," cries the youngest Princess, "I have "certainly caught a monstrous fish; I never per"ceived any thing struggle so at the end of my line "before; come, and help me to draw it in." They

both

have refused good offers, and are receive any for the future.

The only advice, therefore, I sex, as things stand at present, . fast as they can. There is co whole creation, not even Ba truly deplorable than a lady. sixty-three, nor a battered squibs about from place to tail wig and his ears. gination in the form of a of pomatum, the other i or a box of pills.

I would once more t get husbands. I wou an old lover without treat the new with i false; let not prudes coquets the pleasu: the necessary prel have reasons that w particular. In the subject into fifteen but not to give yo tented at present In a winding falls into the C quented by the seclusion, bl ture could b. daughters.: while her c

sequence, quainted young lad

discovere.. of being:

TL.

the mother came down to the use of her daughters' delay; circumstance, describing the aught. The old lady was one i women in the world; she was ed Princess, from two black eyes n her youth, being a little addicted r liquor. "Alas, my children,' at have you done; the fish you a man-fish; one of the most tame mals in the world. We could have and play about the garden, and he been twenty times more entertaining Squirrel or monkey." "If that be all,' ung coquet," we will fish for him again. e all, I'll hold three tooth-picks to one of snuff, I catch him whenever I please." ngly they threw in their line once more, th all their gilding, and paddling, and assihey could never after catch the diver. In te of solitude and disappointment they confor many years, still fishing, but without ss; till, at last, the genius of the place, in to their distresses, changed the prude into a imp, and the coquet into an oyster. Adieu.

LETTER

LETTER LXXXVIII.

FROM THE SAME.

IAM amused, my dear Fum, with the labours of some of the learned here. One shall write you a whole folio on the dissection of a caterpillar. Another shall swell his works with a description of the plumage on the wing of a butterfly; a third shall see a little world on a peach leaf, and publish a book to describe what his readers might see more clearly in two minutes, only by being furnished with eyes and a microscope.

I have frequently compared the understandings of such men to their own glasses. Their field of vision is too contracted to take in the whole of any but minute objects; they view all Nature bit by bit; now the proboscis, now the attennæ, now the pinnæ of-a flea. Now the polypus comes to breakfast upon a worm; now it is kept up to see how long it will live without eating; now it is turned inside outward, and now it sickens and dies. Thus they proceed, laborious in trifles, constant in experiment, without one single abstraction, by which alone knowledge may be properly said to increase; till at last their ideas, ever employed upon minute things, contract to the size of the diminutive object, and a single mite shall fill the whole mind's capacity.

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