ll like you best
undressed, which will bear with you most when out of Humour? and your
way to this is to ask your self, which of them you value most for his
own sake? and by that judge which gives the greater Instances of his
valuing you for your self only.

After you have expressed some Sense of the humble Approach of
_Florio_, and a little Disdain at _Strephon's_ Assurance in his
Address, you cry out, _What an unexceptionable Husband could I make
out of both?_ It would therefore methinks be a good way to determine
your self: Take him in whom what you like is not transferable to
another; for if you choose otherwise, there is no Hopes your Husband
will ever have what you liked in his Rival; but intrinsick Qualities
in one Man may very probably purchase every thing that is adventitious
in [another.[1]] In plainer Terms: he whom you take for his personal
Perfections will sooner arrive at the Gifts of Fortune, than he whom
you take for the sake of his Fortune attain to Personal Perfections.
If _Strephon_ is not as accomplished and agreeable as _Florio_,
Marriage to you will never make him so; but Marriage to you may make
_Florio_ as rich as _Strephon?_ Therefore to make a sure Purchase,
employ Fortune upon Certainties, but do not sacrifice Certainties to
Fortune.

_I am, Your most Obedient, Humble Servant_.

T.

[Footnote 1: any other.]

* * * * *

No. 150. Wednesday, August 22, 1711. Budgell.

'Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se,
Quam quod ridiculos homines facit ...'

Juv.

As I was walking in my Chamber the Morning before I went last into the
Country, I heard the Hawkers with great Vehemence crying about a Paper,
entitled, _The ninety nine Plagues of an empty Purse_. I had indeed some
Time before observed, that the Orators of _Grub-street_ had dealt very
much in _Plagues_. They have already published in the same Month, _The
Plagues of Matrimony, The Plagues of a single Life, The nineteen Plagues
of a Chambermaid, The Plagues of a Coachman, The Plagues of a Footman_,
and _The Plague of Plagues_. The success these several _Plagues_ met
with, probably gave Occasion to the above-mentioned Poem on an _empty
Purse_. However that be, the same Noise so frequently repeated under my
Window, drew me insensibly to think on some of those Inconveniences and
Mortifications wh