SECTION I. Felices homines! quos ftricto feedere jungit, Go, happy pair! in strictest bonds ally'd! §. 1. W HEN I confider how An apole. gy for the happy I have been in married the married ftate, and ftate. in a fucceffion of seven wives, never had one uneafy hour; that even a Paradife, without an Eve, would *The author of Tuphlo-pero-gamia is the Rev. Mr. William Thompson; a junior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, when I was a member of that univerfity. He was a man of the finest parts and learning, and was remarkable for a temper fo vaftly happy, that he was always called Benign Billy. His Paraphrafe on Job, in blank verfe, is an admirable thing: It is, in my opinion, far preferable to the ingenious Broome's paraphrafe on this facred book. 1 1 have been a wilderness to me; that the woods, the groves, the walks, the profpects, the flowers, the fruits, the day, the night, all would have wanted a relish, without that dear, delightful companion, a wife; it amazes me to hear many fenfible people speak with abhorrence of matrimony, and infift upon it, that wedlock produces fo many troubles, even where the pair have affection, and forrows fo very great, when they have no love for each other, or begin to fail in the kind and obliging offices, that it is contrary to reafon to contract, if we have a juft regard to peace and fatisfaction of mind, and would avoid, as much as poffible, the woes and bewailings of this turbid period. If you have acquired the divine habits, marriage may unhinge them. often forces even the pious into immoralities. True, unhappy are many a wedded pair: years of calamity this engagement has pro It duced to thoufands of mortals: it has made the moft pious divines become very cruel, as I could relate: it has caufed the most generous, fenfible men, to murder the women they adored before they were their wives. The Hiftory of Orlando and Bellinda. §. 2. This ftory has been told before by the Tatler, in his 172d paper; but as he has related I related only by hear fay, and was mistaken in feveral particulars, the account I give of this extraordinary affair, may be grateful to the reader. When I was a little boy in Dublin, between feven and eight, Mr. Euftace and his Lady lived next door to my father, in Smithfield, and the two families were intimate. Being a lively prating thing, Mrs. Euftace was fond of me, and by tarts and fruit, encouraged me to run into her parlour as often as I could. This made me well acquainted in the houfe; and, as I was a remarker fo early in my life, I had an opportunity of making the following obferva tions. Orlando Euftace was a tall, thin, ftrong man, well made, and a very genteel perfon. His face was pale, and marked with the fmall-pox: his features were good, and yet there was fomething fierce in his look, even when he was not difpleafed. He had fenfe and learning, and, with a large fortune, was a generous man; but paffionate to an amazing degree, for his understanding; and a trifle would throw him into a rage. He had been humoured in every thing from his cradle, on account of his fine eftate; from his infancy to his manhood, had been continually flattered, and in every thing obeyed. This made him opinionated and proud, obftinate, and incapable of bearing the leaft contradic tion. Bellinda Coot, his Lady, with whom he had been paffionately in love, was as fine a figure as could be feen among the daughters of men. Her perfon was charming; her face was beautiful, and had a sweetness in it that was pleafing to look at. Her vivacity was great, and her understanding extraordinary; but she had a fatirical wit, and a vanity, which made her delight in fhewing the weakness of other minds, and the clearness of her own conception. She was too good, however, to have the leaft malice in fuch procedure. It was human weaknefs, and a defire to make her neighbours wiser. Unfortunately for her, he was married to a man, who, of all men in the world, was the unfitteft fubject for her quick fancy to act on. But, notwithstanding this, Euface and Bellinda were, for the most of their time, very fond. As she was formed in a prodigality of nature, to fhew mankind a finished compofition, and had wit and charms enough to fire the dulleft and moft infenfible heart; a man of Orlando's tafte for the fex, could not be without an inflamed heart, when fo near the tranfporting object of defire. She was his delight for almost a year, the dear fupport of his life. He feemed to value her ̧ eftcem, I efteem, her refpect, her love; and endeavoured to merit them by the virtues which fortify love and therefore, when by his being fhort, pofitive, and unreasonable in his dictates, as was too often his wont; and on her being intemperate in the ftrong fentiments her imagination produced upon the occafion, which was too frequently the cafe; when they seemed to forget the Apostle's advice for a while, that ye love one another with a pure heart, fervently; 1 Pet. i. 22. and had ftrifes and debates, which fhewed, for the time they lafted, that they were far from being perfect and entire, wanting nothing; then would her throwing her face into fmiles, with fome tender expreflion, prove a reconciling method at once. Till the fatal night, this always had a power to foften pain, to ease and calm the raging man. But poor at best is the condition of human life here below; and, when to weak and imperfect faculties, we add inconfiftencies, and do not act up to the eternal law of reafon, and of God; when love of fame, curiofity, refentment, or any of our particular propenfities; when humour, vanity, or any of our inferior powers, are permitted to act against juftice and veracity, and inftead of reflecting on the reafon of the thing, or the right of the cafe, that by the influence this has on the mind, we may be constituted virtuous, B 3 |