each other in the most amiable light. The polite behavior of the first day was uniformly preserved by them, during the many years they continued together; so that the honeymoon of their consociation, if this expression may be allowed, lasted for their lives. This reciprocal complaisance, at first merely adopted, was improved by habit into a solid, uninterrupted, and happy friendship."

The application is obvious.-Go, and do likewise.

3d. As amongst neighbors, so in domestic or conjugal life, sharp contentions arise from judging of matters prematurely, or before they have been duly investigated and weighed. In this respect, Tobit was sadly out of the way. He should have questioned Anna mildly about the bleating kid; asking her in a pleasant tone, how and whence it came; and, if not satisfied with her answers, he should have searched elsewhere for the truth. But no. Such was the flurry of his spirits, that he acted with as much assurance and decision upon a mere impression, as if he had had proof positive. Neither is this a solitary instance: the like has often happened to the great discomfort of social and domestic life. It ought to be deeply engraven on the mind and memory of man and woman, that " he that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him."

4th. In the state of matrimony, hardly any thing is more discomforting, or more deadening to the delicate affection of love, than overmuch suspiciousness of temper. Groundless suspicions, repeatedly manifested, never fail to cool the love and excite the ire of the suspected party. And here again, Tobit deserves the lash of severe censure. He acted the part of a suspicious husband.

And no wonder that Anna, an honest as well as indus

trious housewife-no wonder that she was stung to the quick at being suspected of so heinous an offence It was no wonder that her spirits were aroused, and being well gifted in that particular, that she used her tongue in the able manner she did.

One thing more, and I shall have done. Let no man take occasion from this subject to ridicule or despise marriage. It has passed into a proverbial saying, that there are but few happy matches: and, in one sense, it is true. There are few in comparison of the whole, who are very happy in marriage. But permit me to ask,—are there a great many that are very happy in the single condition? Is the bachelor entitled to glory in his choice, or to boast of a superior degree of felicity? He, who has no one that naturally cares for his person-no one that takes a lively interest in his concerns-no one that participates of his feelings of joy or deeply sympathizes in his adversities, sicknesses and sorrows-no tenderly-throbbing bosom, on which to rest his weary head.

On the reverse of this picture, behold the married man. Perhaps his wife is not, in some respects, quite as he would wish. Perhaps she has turns of unpleasant humor, and sometimes gives him pain by her peevishness or obstinacy. Yet she is faithful to him, and to his interests. Though, at times, she herself assaults him, with her tongue, on no account will she suffer any body else to do it. His joys and his sorrows are hers. In his outgoings, her heart blesses him; and after days or weeks of absence, she affectionately greets him on his return. His food, his apparel, the decencies of his appearance, are objects of her daily attention. His every ailment of body meets her sympathy, and quickens

her care.

In his heavy sicknesses, scarcely does she give sleep

to her eyes, or slumber to her eyelids.

"With a soft and silent tread,

Nimble she moves about the bed."

Anxiously she watches the symptoms; carefully she administers the medicines; she responds to every groan, and with eagerness catches at every glimmer of hope.

Judge now, which of the two is the happier man.

NUMBER XXXIX.

OF FRIENDSHIP, AND THE CHOICE OF FRIENDS.

"Give me the man, whose liberal mind
Means general good to all mankind;
Who, when his friend, by fortune's wound,
Falls, tumbling headlong to the ground,
Can meet him with a warm embrace,
And wipe the tears from off his face."

In the choice of friends, much regard is to be had to the qualities of the head, but much greater still to those of the heart; for if that be radically wanting in integrity and honor, the more alluring is every thing else in personal character, the more dangerous. Catiline, with the worst of hearts, was possessed of personal accomplishments in a transcendent degree. He had the art of accommodating his manners and conversation to people of all tempers and ages. Cicero said of him; He lived with the sad severely, with the cheerful agreeably, with the old gravely, with the young pleasantly. All accomplished as he was, the viciousness of his moral character was manifoldly the more seductive, contagious,

and pernicious to the community at large, and to the young especially. He easily insinuated himself into the friendship of the Roman youth, whom he corrupted and ruined.

Close intimacies, suddenly formed, often end in disappointment and disgust, and to the injury of one or other of the parties. It is a dangerous imprudence to trust any one as a friend, without good evidence of his being trustworthy; without good evidence that he has neither a treacheous heart, a fickle temper, nor a babbling tongue. Often, very often, have the young of both sexes smarted under the consequences of such imprudence.

Equality in point of external circumstances, is not always a necessary preliminary to intimate and permanent friendship. The friendship between David and Jonathan, for unshaken fidelity and sublime ardor, has scarcely a parallel in history; yet the one was a shepherd of mean rank, whilst the other was of blood royal, and heir apparent to the throne. But though it is not always. necessary that two close friends should be equal in their worldly conditions, it is necessary that their deeds and offices of kindness be reciprocal, else one becomes a patron and the other a dependIf one be greatly outdone by his friends in acts of kindness, or receive benefits at their hands which he can never in any wise repay, they will regard him as their debtor on the score of friendship, and he himself must be wounded by the mortifying consciousness of bankruptcy in that respect. Hence there have been instances of proud-hearted men becoming the enemies, and even the destroyers, of their greatest benefactors, in order to rid themselves of a burdensome debt of gratitude.

ent.

One should be careful to show as much fidelity, as much at