w, lay this to his fearfulness of
disobliging or offending. Indeed your over-doers generally give the
offence they endeavour to avoid.

The man however is honest: is of family: has a clear and good estate;
and may one day be a baronet, an't please you. He is humane and
benevolent, tolerably generous, as people say; and as I might say too,
if I would accept of his bribes; which he offers in hopes of having them
all back again, and the bribed into the bargain. A method taken by all
corrupters, from old Satan, to the lowest of his servants. Yet, to speak
in the language of a person I am bound to honour, he is deemed a prudent
man; that is to say a good manager.

Then I cannot but confess, that now I like not anybody better, whatever
I did once.

He is no fox-hunter: he keeps a pack indeed; but prefers not his hounds
to his fellow-creatures. No bad sign for a wife, I own. He loves his
horse; but dislikes racing in a gaming way, as well as all sorts of
gaming. Then he is sober; modest; they say, virtuous; in short,
has qualities that mothers would be fond of in a husband for their
daughters; and for which perhaps their daughters would be the happier
could they judge as well for themselves, as experience possibly may
teach them to judge for their future daughters.

Nevertheless, to own the truth, I cannot say I love the man: nor, I
believe, ever shall.

Strange! that these sober fellows cannot have a decent sprightliness,
a modest assurance with them! Something debonnaire; which need not be
separated from that awe and reverence, when they address a woman, which
should shew the ardour of their passion, rather than the sheepishness
of their nature; for who knows not that love delights in taming the
lion-hearted? That those of the sex, who are most conscious of their
own defect in point of courage, naturally require, and therefore as
naturally prefer, the man who has most of it, as the most able to give
them the requisite protection? That the greater their own cowardice, as
it would be called in a man, the greater is their delight in subjects
of heroism? As may be observed in their reading; which turns upon
difficulties encountered, battles fought, and enemies overcome, four or
five hundred by the prowess of one single hero, the more improbable the
better: in short, that their man should be a hero to every one living
but themselves; and to them know no bound to his humility. A woman has
some glory in subduing a heart no ma