rs of pleasing. No woman can expect to
be to her husband all that he fancied her when he was a lover. Men are
always doomed to be duped, not so much by the arts of the sex, as by
their own imaginations. They are always wooing goddesses, and marrying
mere mortals. A woman should, therefore, ascertain what was the charm
that rendered her so fascinating when a girl, and endeavour to keep it
up when she has become a wife. One great thing undoubtedly was, the
chariness of herself and her conduct, which an unmarried female always
observes. She should maintain the same niceness and reserve in her
person and habits, and endeavour still to preserve a freshness and
virgin delicacy in the eye of her husband. She should remember that
the province of woman is to be wooed, not to woo; to be caressed, not
to caress. Man is an ungrateful being in love; bounty loses instead of
winning him. The secret of a woman's power does not consist so much in
giving, as in withholding.

A woman may give up too much even to her husband. It is to a thousand
little delicacies of conduct that she must trust to keep alive
passion, and to protect herself from that dangerous familiarity, that
thorough acquaintance with every weakness and imperfection incident to
matrimony. By these means she may still maintain her power, though she
has surrendered her person, and may continue the romance of love even
beyond the honeymoon.

"She that hath a wise husband," says Jeremy Taylor, "must entice him
to an eternal dearnesse by the veil of modesty, and the grave robes of
chastity, the ornament of meekness, and the jewels of faith and
charity. She must have no painting but blushings; her brightness must
be purity, and she must shine round about with sweetness and
friendship; and she shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired
when she dies."

I have wandered into a rambling series of remarks on a trite subject,
and a dangerous one for a bachelor to meddle with. That I may not,
however, appear to confine my observations entirely to the wife, I
will conclude with another quotation from Jeremy Taylor, in which the
duties of both parties are mentioned; while I would recommend his
sermon on the marriage-ring to all those who, wiser than myself, are
about entering the happy state of wedlock.

"There is scarce any matter of duty but it concerns them both alike,
and is only distinguished by names, and hath its variety by
circumstances and little accidents: and what in