with by the misfortune of their
circumstances.

This is a very unhappy, and, indeed, a most unseasonable kind of pride;
and if I might presume to add a word here by way of caution to such
ladies, it should be to consider, before they marry tradesmen, the great
disadvantages they lay themselves under, in submitting to be a
tradesman's wife, but not putting themselves in a condition to take the
benefit, as well as the inconvenience of it; for while they are above
the circumstances of the tradesman's wife, they are deprived of all the
remedy against the miseries of a tradesman's widow; and if the man dies,
and leaves them little or nothing but the trade to carry on and maintain
them, they, being unacquainted with that, are undone.

A lady that stoops to marry a tradesman, should consider the usage of
England among the gentry and persons of distinction, where the case is
thus: if a lady, who has a title of honour, suppose it be a countess, or
if she were a duchess, it is all one--if, I say, she stoop to marry a
private gentleman, she ceases to rank for the future as a countess, or
duchess, but must be content to be, for the time to come, what her
husband can entitle her to, and no other; and, excepting the courtesy of
the people calling her my Lady Duchess, or the Countess, she is no more
than plain Mrs such a one, meaning the name of her husband, and no
other.

Thus, if a baronet's widow marry a tradesman in London, she is no more
my lady, but plain Mrs----, the draper's wife, &c. The application of
the thing is thus: if the lady think fit to marry a mechanic, say a
glover, or a cutler, or whatever it is, she should remember she is a
glover's wife from that time, and no more; and to keep up her dignity,
when fortune has levelled her circumstances, is but a piece of
unseasonable pageantry, and will do her no service at all. The thing she
is to inquire is, what she must do if Mr----, the glover, or cutler,
should die? whether she can carry on the trade afterwards, or whether
she can live without it? If she find she cannot live without it, it is
her prudence to consider in time, and so to acquaint herself with the
trade, that she may be able to do it when she comes to it.

I do confess, there is nothing more ridiculous than the double pride of
the ladies of this age, with respect to marrying what they call below
their birth. Some ladies of good families, though but of mean fortune,
are so stiff upon the point of honour,