lation with her before he executes what he has
resolved. Women are ever too hard for us upon a Treaty, and one must
consider how senseless a thing it is to argue with one whose Looks and
Gestures are more prevalent with you, than your Reason and Arguments can
be with her. It is a most miserable Slavery to submit to what you
disapprove, and give up a Truth for no other Reason, but that you had
not Fortitude to support you in asserting it. A Man has enough to do to
conquer his own unreasonable Wishes and Desires; but he does that in
vain, if he has those of another to gratify. Let his Pride be in his
Wife and Family, let him give them all the Conveniences of Life in such
a manner as if he were proud of them; but let it be his own innocent
Pride, and not their exorbitant Desires, which are indulged by him. In
this case all the little Arts imaginable are used to soften a Man's
Heart, and raise his Passion above his Understanding; but in all
Concessions of this Kind, a Man should consider whether the Present he
makes flows from his own Love, or the Importunity of his Beloved: If
from the latter, he is her Slave; if from the former, her Friend. We
laugh it off, and do not weigh this Subjection to Women with that
Seriousness which so important a Circumstance deserves. Why was Courage
given to Man, if his Wife's Fears are to frustrate it? When this is once
indulged, you are no longer her Guardian and Protector, as you were
designed by Nature; but, in Compliance to her Weaknesses, you have
disabled your self from avoiding the Misfortunes into which they will
lead you both, and you are to see the Hour in which you are to be
reproached by her self for that very Complaisance to her. It is indeed
the most difficult Mastery over our selves we can possibly attain, to
resist the Grief of her who charms us; but let the Heart ake, be the
Anguish never so quick and painful, it is what must be suffered and
passed through, if you think to live like a Gentleman, or be conscious
to your self that you are a Man of Honesty. The old Argument, that _You
do not love me if you deny me this_, which first was used to obtain a
Trifle, by habitual Success will oblige the unhappy Man who gives Way to
it, to resign the Cause even of his Country and his Honour.

T.

[Footnote 1: [an] and in first reprint.]

[Footnote 2: History of the World, Bk. i. ch. 4, sect. 4.]

* * * * *

No. 511.