when they are of immoderate length, seldom fail to be tiresome. So that public speakers consult their own credit as little as they do the feelings of their hearers, when they are more solicitous to say much, than that every thing they do say should be to the purpose.

Whether in visits, in public speaking, or in common conversation, all can discern and reprobate the fault of tediousness as respects others; and yet very few are fully aware of it as respects themselves. Their own company is, forsooth, so delightful, that their visits can never tire; they, themselves, speak so well, that nobody can wish them to have done; they talk so charmingly that their own loquaciousness always gives entertainment rather than disgust.

Thus it is that some men, otherwise of good sense, unconsciously give pain by their prolixity, though, in regard to the prolixity of any body but themselves, their taste is delicate even to squeamishness.

NUMBER XCV.

OF SOME PARTICULARS CONDUCIVE TO CONJUGAL PEACE AND HAPPINESS.

"While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,
Between us two let there be peace.--"

THESE are the words which Milton puts into the mouth of Eve, to pacify and soothe her incensed husband, at the moment he found himself involved, along with her, in a condition of guilt and misery occasioned primarily by her fault; nor is there, perhaps, any thing more exquisitely pathetic in the immortal work of that poet. Indeed, throughout the whole speech of Eve, in the latter part of the tenth book of the Paradise Lost, the affectionate and pathetical tone in which she pleads, and her general manner, are such as must touch with commiseration any heart but one of stone.

In the lines selected for the present motto, there is a moral, which comes home to the bosom of every intelligent man and woman in the married state. Next in importance to the serenity of a good conscience, is the enjoyment of domestic peace. With it, adversity is soothed by the repose of home; without it, prosper

ity is but a gilded misery. Connubial harmony sweetens as well as enhances the common blessings of life, while its opposite imbitters whatever of enjoyment the smiles of fortune can bestow; so that the "dinner of herbs "is far better in the one case, than the "stalled ox" in the other.

It is not to my present purpose, however, to describe at large either the blissful fruits of connubial harmony, or the baneful consequences of domestic discord, but rather to suggest ways and means for securing the one and avoiding the other; by which course, while shunning the beaten track of declamation, I am led into by-paths, or to observations very little connected. But if only one of these unconnected observations shall be found really useful, it is hoped that the reader will excuse all the rest for the sake of that one.

Although marriages, to be happy, must be founded in mutual affection, yet even that essentially necessary basis is not sufficient to build hopes upon, without one's possessing, in addition, a reasonable prospect of competence,--the real amount of which, as respects the fashionable class, is not definable by any fixed metes and bounds, being diverse according to the diversity of tastes and habits. It is but little that man absolutely needs; and were his desires in any measure proportionate to his real needs, a competence would, in most instances, be of very easy attainment. But in the highly artificial state of society now existing, it unfortunately happens, that the despotic court of Fashion dooms very many to a life of celibacy, not for their want of ability to support the mere necessary expenses of a married state, but for want of ability to support its expenses in that sphere of life to which they have been accustomed, and

from which it is their settled resolution never to descend; choosing rather to forego the first and sweetest of social comforts, than to sink only a few degrees in Fashion's scale. Again, from the same cause, it happens still more unfortunately, that very many in the married state turn their weal into woe, and sometimes their amity to discord, by beginning with, and persisting in a style of living, utterly incompatible with their fortunes or their incomes. Of all the sources of domestic infelicity, this is at present one of the most prolific.

But to come more closely to the point in hand;-in choosing a wife, examine carefully whether her domestic character be estimable. If her temper, her moral qualities, her deportment toward her parents, and the general tenor of her conduct in the domestic circle, speak highly in her favor, good earnest is then given that she will act her part well in a family of her own.

Expect not too much from Woman. It is neither an angelical, nor a paradisiacal being, that you are to enter into connubial alliance with, but an inheritor of the infirmities of fallen nature, -one who, at best, has some of the ingredients of folly and perverseness in her composition. If then you must needs have a perfect wife, the better way will be to wait till you become perfect yourself.

If your heart be infected with the scrofula of contempt for female nature, marry not at all till cured of that foul disease.

Popinjay values himself greatly, as it would seem, upon his manly contempt of womankind, and particularly of his wife. In his estimation, almost every thing she says is foolish, and more than half she does is wrong. That manner on his part, has occasioned in her an intellectual and a moral debasement,

Treated daily with disrespect and scorn, she has lost by degrees almost all respect for herself.

There are other pairs who, in this respect, are very equally matched. For instance, Pertinax and his conjugal mate, dispute it together all the year round about trifles, because he is always in the right, and she never in the wrong. They are as like as "cherry to cherry," in their general qualities, which are passably good; and it wants only a little condescension on both sides, to render their union felicitous rather than otherwise.

Fix it as a maxim in your mind, that it is of more importance, generally speaking, for one to keep well with his wife, than with any other earthly friend. Acting on that maxim, and yet more on the sacred principle of moral and religious duty, ever treat your wife with heartfelt benevolence. Cast the mantle over the common frailties incidental to humanity; esteem and cherish her better qualities, and habitually maintain a tender and sympathetic consideration for her feelings.

Of the other sex, I crave the indulgence of hazarding the monition and the advice, which here follow.

Marry not the man who is known to be unkind, contemptuous and scornful to the mother that bare him :-it will be a miracle if he treat his wife any better.

Marry not a blasphemous infidel, however rich, or however accomplished. For, besides the weighty consideration of the contaminating influence of such an alliance, he that contemns the God that made him, is not one that will give due honor to the wife that is subject to him.

Marry not a profligate libertine in hopes of reforming him. Too feeble will be your cords to bind down the headlong passions