cian a man who excelled in every thing rather than in law or phyfic. Let me remark, too, that knowledge and good-will are not the only requifites for the office of a helper. It demands a certain energy both of body and mind which is lefs frequently met with among the females of the prefent age than might be with ed. How much foever infirm and delicate health may interest the feelings, it is certainly an undefirable at tendant on a connection for life. Nothing can be more contrary to the qualification of a helpmate, than a condition which conftantly requires that affiftance which it never can impart. It is, I am fure, the fartheft thing from my intention to harden your heart againft impreffions of pity, or flacken those services of affection ate kindness by which you may foften the calamitous lot of the most amiable and deferving of the fpecies. But a matrimonial choice is a choice for your own benefit, by which you are to obtain additional fources of happiness; and it would be mere folly in their stead voluntarily to take upon you new incumbrances and diftreffes. Akin to an unnerved frame of body, is that shrinking timidity of mind, and exceffive nicety of feeling, which is too much encouraged under the notion of female delicacy. That this is carried beyond all reasonable bounds in modern education, can fcarcely be doubted by one who confiders what exertions of fortitude and felf-command are continually required in the courfe of female duty. One who views fociety closely, in its interior as well as its exterior, will know that occafions of alarm, fuffering, and difguft, come much more frequently in the way of women than of men. To them belong all offices about the weak, the fick, and the dying. When the house becomes a fcene of wretchedness from any caufe, the man often runs abroad, the woman muft ftay at home and face the worst. All this takes place in cultivated fociety, and in claffes of life raised above the common level. In a favage ftate, and in the lower conditions, women are compelled to undergo even the most laborious as well as the most disagreeable tasks. If nature, then, has made them fo weak in temper and conftitution as many fuppofe, she has not fuited means to ends with the forefight we generally discover in her plans, I confefs myfelf decidedly of the opinion of those who would rather form the two fexes to a resemblance of character, than contraft them, Virtue, wisdom, prefence of mind, patience, vigour, capacity, application, are not fexual qualities; they belong to mankind-to all who have duties to perform and evils to endure. It is furely a most degrading idea of the female fex, that they muft owe their influence to trick and fineffe, to counterfeit or real weaknefs. They are too effential to our happiness to need fuch arts; too much of the pleasure and of the bufinefs of the world depends upon them, to give reafon for apprehenfion that we fhall ceafe to join partnership with them. Let them aim at excelling in the qualities peculiarly adapted to the parts they have to act, and they may be excused from affected languor and coquetry. We fhall not think them less amiable for being our best helpers. Having thus endeavoured to give you just ideas of the principal requi fites in a wife, especially in a wife for one in your condition, I have done all that lies within the compass of an advifer. From the influence of paffion I cannot guard you: I can only deprecate its power. It may be more to the purpose to diffuade you from hafty engagements, because in making them, a perfon of any refolution is not to be regarded as merely paffive. Though the head has loft its rule over the heart, it may retain its command of the hand. And furely furely if we are to pause before any action, it should be before one on which "all the colour of remaining life" depends. Your reafon must be convinced, that to form a folid judgment of fo many qualities as are requifite in the conjugal union, is no affair of days and weeks, of cafual vifits or public exhibitions. Study your object at home-fee her tried in her proper department. Let the progrefs be, liking, approving, loving, and laftly, declaring; and may you, after the experience of as many years as I have had, be as happily convinced, that a choice fo formed is not likely to deceive! You may think it ftrange, that I have not touched upon a confideration which generally takes the lead in parental estimates of matrimonial views-that of fortune. But I have been treating on the woman only, not on any thing extraneous to her. Fortune acquired with a wife, is the fame thing as fortune got any other way. It has its value, and certainly no small one, in procuring the defirable comforts of life; and to rush into a ftate in which wants will be greatly increased, without a reafonable profpect of being able to supply those wants, is an act, not merely of careleffness, but of downright folly. But with refpect to the fources whence their supply is to be fought, that is a particular inquiry to each individual; and I do not think fo ill of your prudence as to apprehend that you will not give it all the attention its importance demands. Another confideration, that of the family connexions formed by marriage, is of a fimilar kind. Its great importance cannot be doubted; but it is an affair to be determined on by the dictates of common prudence, juft as in forming thofe connexions after any other mode; though, indeed, in no other can they be formed equally strong. One who is mafter of his deliberations, may be trusted to decide these points, as well as any others that occur in the practice of life. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANCE. F the agreeable claffes of literabeen held the most delightful: it has been elegantly defined, as the offfpring of fiction and love. Men of learning have amufed themselves with tracing the epocha of Romances. In this research they have difplayed more ingenuity than reafon; and fome have fancied that it may have existed as far back as the time of Ariftotle; Dearchus, one of his difciples, having written feveral works of this amufing fpecies. tion of the writer is fufficiently ftored Let us however be fatisfied in deriving it from the Theagenes and Chariclea of Heliodorus, a bishop who lived in the fourth century; whofe work has been lately tranflated. This elegant prelate was the Grecian Fenelon. Beautiful as these compofitions are when the imagina nature, in their birth, like many of the fine arts, they found in the zealots of religion, men who oppofed their progrefs. However Heliodorus may have delighted thofe who were not infenfible to the felicities of a fine imagination, and to the enchanting elegancies of ftyle, he raifed himfelf, amongft his brother ecclefiaftics, enemies, who at length fo far prevailed, that it was declared by a fynod, that his performance was dangerous to young perfons, and that if the author did not fupprefs it, he must refign his bishoprick. We are told he preferred his Romance to his bishoprick. Even fo late as in Racine's time, it was held a crime to perufe these unhallowed pages. He informs us, that the firft effufions of his mufe were were in confequence of studying that ancient Romance, which his matter obferving him to devour with the keennefs of a famished man, he fnatched it from his hands and flung it in the fire. A fecond copy experienced the fame fate. What could Racine do? He bought a third, and took the precaution of devouring it fecretly, till he got it by heart; after which he offered it to his mafter with a fmile, to burn, if he chofe, like the others. The decifion of these bigots was founded in their opinion of the immorality of fuch works. They alledged, that the writers paint too warmly to the imagination, addrefs themselves too forcibly to the paffions, and in general, by the freedom of their representations, hover on the borders of indecency. The little page, which we allot to ourselves, does by no means admit of invalidating cenfures fo plaufible. Let it be fufficient, however, to obferve, that those who condemned the liberties which thefe writers take with the imagination, could indulge themfelves with the loves of the wife Solomon, when fanctioned by the au thority of the church. Other opinions concerning the origin of Romances it is proper to no tice. The learned Fleury thinks that they were not known till the twelfth century, and gives as their original, the hiftory of the Dukes of Normandy. The hiftory of the acts of Charlemagne and Roland, falfely afcribed to Archbishop Turpin, proves that Romances are ancient. Dom River, one of the erudite affociates of the congregation of St Maur, authors of the Literary Hiftory of France, fixes their origin in the tenth century. He fays, that the most ancient Romance known, was one which appeared in the middle of that century, under the title of Philomena, or the Beloved. This Romance contains the pretended ex ploits of Charlemagne, before Nar bonne. At Touloufe, he tells us, they have preferved a copy of the Philomena in its original languages that is to fay, the Romaunt or polished; fuch as was then spoken at court. They preferred this language to the Latin, which was then that of the common people, but vitiated with their corruptions. So far have we travelled on the road of conjecture; we will now turn into the path of fact. It is certain that thefe compofitions derive their name from the language in which they were firft written. Abbé Iraild has given us the character of the earlieft Romances, which I fhall tranfcribe; for to add, to what is well expreffed, however it may please the vanity of a writer, feldom tends to the gratification of the reader. 6 The firft Romances were a monftrous affenblage of hiftories, in which truth and fiction were equally blended, but all without probability; a compofition of amorous adventures, and all the extravagant ideas of chivalry. The incidents are infinitely multiplied; deftitute of connexion, of order, and art. These are the ancient and miferable Romances, which Cervantes, in his celebrated fatirical Romance of Don Quixote, has covered with an eternal ridicule.' It is however from thefe produc tions, rather in their improved ftate, that poets of all nations have drawn their richest inventions. The agreeable wildnefs of that fancy, which characterised the eastern nations, was caught by the Crufaders. When they returned home, they mingled in their own the customs of each country. The Saracens, who were men like themfelves, because they were of another religion, and were there. fore their enemies, were pictured under the tremendous form of Paynim Giants. The credulous reader of the day followed with trembling anxiety the Red-cross Knight. It was thus that that fiction imbellified religion, and religion invigorated fiction. Such incidents have enlivened the cantos of Ariosto, and adorned the epic of Taffo: Spenfer is the child of their creation; and it is certain that we are indebted to them for fome of the bold and strong touches of Milton. We must not dwell on the progreffive improvements of the Romance in its metrical form, as this would entice us too far from our defign. We feel ourselves treading on fairy ground, and we quit with regret its delightful vifions. The Italian Romances of the fourteenth century were fpread abroad in great numbers. They formed the polite literature of the day. But if it is not permitted to authors freely to exprefs their ideas, and give full play to the imagination, these works must never be placed in the study of the rigid moralift. They indeed pushed their indelicacy to the verge of groffness, and feemed rather to feek than to avoid fcenes, which a modern would blush to defcribe. They (to employ the expreffion of one of their authors) were not ashamed to name what God had created. Cinthio, Bandello, and others, but chiefly Boccacio, rendered libertinifm agreeable, by the fafcinating charms of a polished style, and a luxuriant imagination. This however must not be admitted as an apology for immoral works; for poifon is ftill poifon, even when it is delicious. Such works were, and still continue to be, the favourites of a nation, which is ftigmatifed for being prone to illicit pleafures and impure amours. They are still curious in their editions, and are not parfimonious in their price for what they call, an uncaftrated copy. There are many Italians, not literary men, who are in poffeffion of an ample library of thefe old novelists. If we país over the moral irregulárities of these romances, we may difcover a rich vein of invention, which only requires to be released from that rubbish which disfigures it, to become of an invaluable price. The Decamerons, the Hecatommiti and the Novellas of thefe writers, made no inconfiderable figure in the little library of our Shakespeare. Chaucer is a notorious imitator and lover of them; his Knight's Tale is little more than a paraphrase of Boccacio's Tefeoide. Fontaine has caught all their charms with all their licentioufnefs. From fuch works, thefe great poets, and many of their contempora ries, frequently borrowed their plots; not uncommonly kindled at their flame the ardour of their genius; but bending too fubmiffively to their own. peculiar tafte, or that of their age, in extracting the ore, they have not purified it of the alloy. We must now turn our contemplation to the French Romances of the laft century. They were then carried to a point of perfection, which as romances they cannot exceed. To this the Aftrea of D'Urfé greatly contributed. As this work is founded on several curious circumstances, I fhall make it the subject of the following articles; for it may be confidered as a literary curiofity. It was followed by the illuftrious Baffa, the great Cyrus, Clelia, &c. which, tho' not adapted to the prefent age, gave celebrity to their authors. Their ftyle, as well as that of the Aftrea, is diffuse and infipid. The Zaide of Segrais, and the Princess of Cleves are tranflated, and though they are mafterpieces of the kind, were never popular in our country, and are little adapted to its genius. It is not furprifing that Romances have been regarded as pernicious to good fenfe, morals, tafte, and literature. It was in this light they were confidered by Boileau: because a few had fucceeded, a croud imitated their examples. Gomberville and Scudery, and a few more were adLI mired; mired; but the fatirift diffolved the their perufal; children just escaped illufion. This he did most effectually from the lap of their nurfe, grafping by a dialogue, in which he ridicules in their little hands the fairy tales; thofe citizens of a certain diftrict, and a country fquire, feated in an old whose characters were concealed in arm-chair, and reading to his family thefe Romances, under the names of the most wonderful paffages of the Brutus, Horace Cocles, Lucretius ancient works of chivalry. and Clelia. This dialogue he only read to his friends, among whom he efteemed Mademoifelle de Scudery: but when at length it was published, it united all the Romance writers against our fatirist. I must not omit noticing an oration, which a celebrated jefuit pro nounced against these works. It is true he exaggerates; and it has been finely obferved, that he hurls his thunders on flowers. He intreats the magiftrates not to fuffer the foreign Romances to be fcattered amongst the people; but to lay on them heavy penalties as on prohibited goods; and reprefents this prevailing tafte as being more peftilential than the plague itself. He has drawn a ftriking picture of a family devoted to Romance reading; he there defcribes women occupied day and night with From Romances, which had now exhaufted the patience of the public, fprung NoVELS. They attempted to allure attention by this inviting title, and reducing their works from ten to two volumes. The name of Romance difgufted; and they fubftitut ed thofe of Hiftories, Lives, Memoirs and Adventures. In these works (obferves Iraild) they quitted the unnatural ineidents, the heroic projects, the complicated and endlefs intrigues, and the exertion of noble paffions; heroes were not now taken from the throne, they were fought for even amongst the lowest ranks of the people. On this fubject, I fhall juft obferve, that a novel is a very dangerous poifon in the hand of a libertine; it may be a falutary medicine in that of a virtuous writer. ANECDOTES OF SCARRON. SCARRON is amongst the French writers, what Butler is amongst our own. As a burlefque poet, he has occafionally great merit. He is now however little read; for the uniformity of the burlefque ftyle is as intolerable, as the uniformity of the ferious. There is fomething uncommon in the anecdotes of his life, although he was a mere author. I have collected them from various fources, and perhaps fome are not generally known: His family was noble, and rich; few are born with more flattering hopes than Scarron. His father, a counsellor with an income of 25,000 livres, married a second wife, and the lively Scarron foon became the object of her hatred. He ftudied and travelled, and took the clerical ton- |