Page:Johnson - The Rambler 1.djvu/115

N° 18.


 * Illic matre carentibus,

Privignis muliere temperat innocens,  Nec dotata regit virum  Conjux, nec nitido fidit adultero: 
 * Dos est magna parentum 

Virtus, et metuens alterius tori  Certo fœdere castitas.


 * Not there the guiltless step-dame knows

The baleful draught for orphans to compose;
 * No wife high portion'd rules her spouse,

Or trusts her essenc'd lover's faithless vows:
 * The lovers there for dow'ry claim
 * The father's virtue, and the spotless fame,

Which dares not break the nuptial tie.

HERE is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.

This general unhappiness has given occasion to many sage maxims among the serious, and smart remarks among the gay; the moralist and the writer of epigrams have equally shown their abilities upon it; some have lamented, and some have ridiculed it; but as the faculty of writing has been chiefly a masculine endowment, the reproach of making the world miserable has been always thrown upon the women, and the grave and the merry have equally thought themselves at liberty to conclude Rh