cend, in the matrimonial
wheel, never to take my turn again, but by fits and starts like the
feeble struggles of a sinking state for its dying liberty.

All good-natured men are passionate, says Mr. Lovelace. A pretty plea
to a beloved object in the plenitude of her power! As much as to say,
'Greatly I value you, Madam, I will not take pains to curb my passions
to oblige you'--Methinks I should be glad to hear from Mr. Hickman such
a plea for good nature as this.

Indeed, we are too apt to make allowances for such tempers as early
indulgence has made uncontroulable; and therefore habitually evil. But
if a boisterous temper, when under obligation, is to be thus allowed
for, what, when the tables are turned, will it expect? You know a
husband, who, I fancy, had some of these early allowances made for him:
and you see that neither himself nor any body else is the happier for
it.

The suiting of the tempers of two persons who are to come together, is
a great matter: and there should be boundaries fixed between them, by
consent as it were, beyond which neither should go: and each should hold
the other to it; or there would probably be encroachment in both. To
illustrate my assertion by a very high, and by a more manly (as some
would think it) than womanly instance--if the boundaries of the
three estates that constitute our political union were not known,
and occasionally asserted, what would become of the prerogatives and
privileges of each? The two branches of the legislature would encroach
upon each other; and the executive power would swallow up both.

But if two persons of discretion, you'll say, come together--

Ay, my dear, that's true: but, if none but persons of discretion were
to marry--And would it not surprise you if I were to advance, that the
persons of discretion are generally single?--Such persons are apt
to consider too much, to resolve.--Are not you and I complimented as
such?--And would either of us marry, if the fellows and our friends
would let us alone?

But to the former point;--had Lovelace made his addresses to me, (unless
indeed I had been taken with a liking for him more than conditional,)
I would have forbid him, upon the first passionate instance of his
good-nature, as he calls it, ever to see me more: 'Thou must bear with
me, honest friend, might I have said [had I condescended to say any
thing to him] an hundred times more than this:--Begone, therefore!--I
bear with no passions that are p